African explorer and medical doctor story brought to life for Heritage Week

African explorer and medical doctor story brought to life for Heritage Week

African explorer and medical doctor story brought to life for Heritage Week        African explorer and medical doctor story brought to life for Heritage Week

A statute of Ballybay GP Dr. Thomas Parke is outside the Natural History Museum or Dead Zoo in Dublin.

Yesterday, at a special Heritage Week event, participants heard about his adventures as part of an expedition mapping the Congo River in 1887.

He is credited with the “discovery” of the Mountains of the Moon, mountains on the Equator which at high altitudes are snow covered.

He also found a new large mammal species the “Forest Zebra”, which later turned out to be actually a relation of the giraffe, called an Okapi.