The last of the Woolly Mammoths was very good at hide and seek. He had a knack for hiding in plain sight in busy cityscapes. You might spot Woolly wearing his iconic red and white striped woollen jumper. In fact he wouldn’t be seen without it. Woolly never forgot what his mother told him “Don’t go out without a jumper!”.
‘Where’s Woolly?’ was created as a collaboration piece by Ōtautahi wildlife artist Georgette Thompson and her husband, Mark Thomson. Georgette dreamed up a concept of transforming an Elmer elephant into a woolly mammoth. As a chartered civil engineer, Mark had the engineering brain and know-how to make that a reality. He crafted the tusks from timber and fibreglass, and then attached the tusks with reinforcement to the inside of the elephant – all via a hole only millimetres wider than his head! It was then up to Georgette to bring the mammoth to life via paint!