It was displayed as a tiger skin at the 1862 International Exhibition, and sold to William Gott, who had it mounted by Edwin Henry Ward, and presented it in 1863 to the museum of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England.

Its label read, "Shot in Deyrah Dhoon in March 1860 by Colonel Charles Reid, C.B., H.M. 2nd Goorkahs (Sirmoor Rifles) by whom this tiger is exhibited".

At the annual conversazione of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society in 1863, the Reverend Thomas Hincks stated that, "he was afraid that the tiger ... had been too much the great lion ... and that they had neglected many other noble beasts surrounding it".

[15] In a long article extolling the philanthropy of William Gott, the Leeds Mercury reported, "The setting up of this tiger is so natural and so perfect in posture and anatomical detail, that it is certainly to be looked upon as a work of art quite as much as an object for scientific observation ... "[16] and in the same vein, "Professor Owen has more than once stated that it is the finest and largest animal of its species not only in England but in Europe".

[17] Ebony Andrews (2009) suggests that the taxidermist Ward would have mounted the tiger skin to be viewed from above and laterally so that patching or the strange shape of the head might have remained unnoticed.

[19][20] In a 1906 museum guidebook, the curator Henry Crowther wrote that the original Bengal tiger "destroyed forty bullocks in six weeks and was considered so formidable that no native dare venture into the jungle where this noble beast reigned supreme".

It had long terrorised the villagers and farmstock of a limited area, and besides accounting for several natives, no fewer than forty bullocks were killed during a period of six weeks".

[21] In 2021 Leeds Museums & Galleries curator Clare Brown stated that there was no evidence "that it was anything other than a large tiger minding its own business in a quiet Himalayan valley on the day Charles Reid turned up and shot it".

Paul Chrystal (2016) suggests that the Leeds Tiger was "saved from the curators' skip by The Yorkshire Post, when it mounted a successful campaign to retain it as a popular centrepiece of the museum's collection".