Yetis unicorns and even drifting kittens Inside the worlds zaniest zoo

From the outside, it"s an mediocre industrial warehouse, home to Duke"s Auction House. But the stink of turpentine outlines it out from the alternative buildings on the Grove Industrial Estate in Dorchester, Dorset. It"s the initial idea that inside lurks a breakwater of Victorian taxidermy.

Step in, and you"ll see a Bengali tiger on the rear legs, 8ft tall, lunging claws-first (and canines first) towards you. Behind him is a peacock, stately tail splayed at the back of it.

To the right are 3 zebras, a camel, baby rhinoceros and 7 lions, the lioness disfigured on the ground, falling her incisors in to a bloodied antelope. All in all, there are 250 animals, most of that are the treasures of an individualist 19th-century highbrow and explorer.