Move over Crocodile Dundee, you’re too long in the tooth, for Crocodile Perth is looking to add bite to the Fair City.
Perth’s Black Watch Museum is not following any film script as they try to snap up donations of crocodile skin to create their own handling collection.
The museum’s collection includes a Sudanese crocodile skin shield brought back by soldiers fighting abroad in the 1880s.
And museum officers have made a plea to anyone in Courier country who could contribute crocodile skin so that their visitors can feel exactly why the hide was used to make such a weapon.
Learning and audiences officer Rebecca Berger said: “We are working on collecting and purchasing a handling collection.
“We want to introduce crocodile skin into the gallery as part of having objects and materials that visitors are able to touch and feel which reflect the actual collection on display.
“One of the things we have in our Empire Gallery is a crocodile skin shield.
“Regiments brought back objects from wherever they were serving around the world. The shield was brought back from Egypt and the Sudan in the 1880s and is thought to be Sudanese.
“We thought it would be interesting if we could get some crocodile skins for people to feel how tough it is and discover why it was used to make into a shield.”
A full brown crocodile hide can currently be bought from online auction site Ebay at a cost of £1,410. The advert boasts that the skin is 56 inches in length, 19.5 inches in width (stomach), with a tail measuring seven inches long and 1mm-1.3mm in thickness.
Rebecca continued: “We are currently looking at whether we can buy some but it is very expensive. We have found a few if we get funding. Large pieces cost several hundred pounds but you can get little bits for less than that.
“We thought we would put out a query to ask the public as you never know what people have lying around their houses.”
The museum can be contacted by calling 01738 638152.