Louis XIV's Elephant Drank Wine

In 1668, Louis XIV received a female African elephant from the Congo as a diplomatic gift from Portugal and housed her in the Royal Menagerie of Versailles. Her daily diet consisted of 80 pounds of bread, 12 liters of wine, vegetable soup containing bread and rice, and as much grass as she wanted. She lived at Versailles for 13 years but developed severe muscle loss during her final year and sometimes required a crane to lift her upright. After her death in 1681, Claude Perrault dissected her, and her skeleton eventually entered France's National Museum of Natural History.

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