Bobo, Taxidermy display in Seattle, United States

Bobo was a western lowland gorilla who lived at Woodland Park Zoo from 1953 until 1968 and became a major attraction for visitors from across the region. The museum displays his preserved remains and documents his time in Seattle through various exhibits and materials.

Bobo was captured as an infant in French Equatorial Africa in 1951 and sold to Woodland Park Zoo in 1953, where he became Seattle's most prominent attraction before the Space Needle. After his death in 1968, his mounted pelt went on display at the Museum of History and Industry, while his skeleton was transferred to the Burke Museum. The pelt was restored by the original taxidermist in 2000 and taken off display when MOHAI moved in 2012.

Bobo was captured as an infant in French Equatorial Africa in 1951 and raised in the Lowman family home in Anacortes, where he became a local attraction before moving to Woodland Park Zoo in 1953. At the zoo he was paired with a female gorilla named Fifi in 1956; they never mated, a puzzle that intrigued zookeepers and the press. His mounted pelt is now at MOHAI, while his skeleton is held by the Burke Museum.

Bobo's mounted pelt is held by the Museum of History and Industry, which moved to South Lake Union in December 2012; the display came off view during that move. The rest of his remains, the skeleton, belong to the Burke Museum. Check with each institution before travelling to see either.

Bobo's skull vanished after his 1968 autopsy and stayed with physician Merrill Spencer, who let a reporter photograph it in 1981 but refused to hand it over. After Spencer died in 2006, his employees negotiated its return, and the skull rejoined the skeleton at the Burke Museum in 2007.