In 1871 the zoo acquired four giraffes; the following year an elephant, Maharajah, was bought for £680 from Wombwell's Menagerie No.1 in Edinburgh. The plan to transport Maharajah from Edinburgh to Manchester by train was abandoned after the elephant destroyed the railway compartment in which he was to travel. It was therefore decided that Maharajah and his trainer, Lorenzo Lawrence, should walk to Manchester, a journey they completed in 10 days with little incident. Lorenzo became the zoo's head elephant keeper, and stayed at Belle Vue for more than 40 years. Maharajah provided elephant rides to the public for ten years, until his death from pneumonia in 1882. His skeleton was preserved and added to the gardens' natural history museum. When the museum was decommissioned in 1941, the skeleton, along with other exhibits, was transferred to the Manchester Museum.