‘Photographs did not do it justice’: King Louis XV’s magnificent rhino is star of new London exhibition

The black rhinoceros lived alone in a fenced pen in the Royal Ménagerie. Photograph: Agnès Iatzoura/MNHN

King Louis XV’s rhinoceros was the star of the court of Versailles. Fed on a diet of bread, its tough hide was regularly massaged with oil. But it proved not an easy pet to keep and unfortunately killed two people who entered its enclosure.

Now, the magnificent beast, since stuffed and preserved, has left Paris for the first time since it arrived in 1770, travelling to London to take up a temporary place under the spotlight at the Science Museum in London.