Museum of Chelmsford taxidermy bear helps tackle wildlife crime

A student has been using hair from a 120-year-old museum exhibit to help find new ways of solving wildlife crime.

The taxidermy bear, known as Boris, is a popular feature at the Museum of Chelmsford and is regarded as its unofficial mascot.

Hayden Leigh, a forensic science graduate at the University of Staffordshire, is using samples taken from his hair to help protect modern-day brown bears from illegal poaching.

His PhD research involves analysing Boris’s fur to compare how its characteristics could improve identification of animal hairs during investigations.

Boris arrived at the museum in 1932 amongst a large collection of taxidermy bequeathed by a local game hunter.

Leigh said in the wild the animals were mostly found in places like Romania and Bulgaria as well as Russia.

He said he had been using a microscope to analyse the cuticles, and different layers of the bear’s fur as well as its DNA.

Leigh had previously approached about 30 zoos and museums for help with the project before the Museum of Chelmsford said they would lend a hand.

“There’s been hundreds of studies done on dog hairs and cat hairs and general domestic animals, and I thought, well, let’s make a wider impact than on the wider wildlife crime investigations,” he said.