Dudley Canal Trust welcomes woolly mammoth

Fluffy, a stuffed woolly mammoth, has been taken in by Dudley Canal Trust – and is not far off touching the ceiling of the Trust's Birmingham New Road base.

Housed in the Biffa Award Gallery, visitors can meet Fluffy – previously housed at the now closed down Dudley Museum & Art Gallery – for free, seven days a week from 10am until 5pm.

Sarah Fellows, the Trust's heritage activities officer, said: "Fluffy the mammoth used to live at Dudley Museum & Art Gallery, and when that shut he went out to Bilston Craft Gallery as a part of a pre-historic exhibition along with dinosaurs and things like that.

"He is not due to go out to Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum until April next year, so we offered to temporarily home Fluffy until he goes there.

"We've given him a home – a roof over his head."

Complete with masses of fur, huge hooves and tusks – Fluffy truly is a sight to behold.

And those who go to meet him at the Trust's headquarters will be able to find information on woolly mammoths, who became extinct around 15,000 years ago.

"It's free to visit and people are encourage to take as many mammoth selfies as they like," said Fellows.

"Around 10,000 to 15,000 years ago, they would have been living here in Dudley and there's information on what they were like."

She added: "Taking pride of place, Fluffy is very much his own exhibit – he is huge.

"He is downstairs in the Biffa Award Gallery and it is free to enter, seven days a week from 10am until 5pm."

The Trust's Twitter feed remarked that Fluffy the woolly mammoth was its largest-ever visitor.

The post read: "We're ridiculously excited to welcome our largest ever visitor, Fluffy the mammoth, on loan from Dudley Museum Service for a few months!"

The Dudley Canal Trust is home to several tours this summer.

More information on ticket prices and times can be found http://dudleycanaltrust.org.uk