Popular Official Guide to the New York Zoological Park (September 1915): Thirteenth EditionHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
History
Popular Official Guide to the New York Zoological Park (September 1915): Thirteenth Edition
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
New York Zoological Park
The oldest, the best-known and the most common Giraffe is the
three-horned species, found from central Uganda southward. The
five-horned variety meets the former in Uganda, and occurs from that
region westward to the edge of the great equatorial forest, and on
westward even to Lake Tchad, and the lower Niger Valley. Excepting in
Uganda, Kahma’s country, and a few other protected districts, the
Giraffe is now rare, particularly throughout the regions that are
accessible to hunters. Thousands of these wonderful creatures have been
killed by hunters, both white and black, solely for the sake of seeing
them dead, and leaving them as prey to the hyænas and hunting-dogs. It
seems to be beyond the power of most men who can shoot to see living
wild animals, no matter how large or wonderful, without desiring to
reduce them to carcasses, fit only for scavengers.
[Illustration: NUBIAN GIRAFFES.]
The Eland, (_Taurotragus oryx_), is the largest and most imposing of all
antelopes. As might be inferred from its great size, it is now so nearly
extinct that it has almost disappeared from the lists of dealers in wild
animals. The fine young pair now in the Antelope House was presented by
the Duke of Bedford, from his famous animal collection at Woburn Park.
The fully adult female is the gift of Mr. C. Ledyard Blair.
Of Elands there are two well-marked species. That of eastern and
southern Africa, here represented, was once numerous on many of the
fertile plains of the great plateau now known as Rhodesia, and in fact
throughout nearly the whole of the uplands of eastern Africa, from the
Cape to the Sahara. Unfortunately, however, white hunters and modern
firearms have reduced the countless thousands of the great herds to
numbers so small that the capture and exportation of Elands have
practically ceased.
Although a number of Elands have been born in captivity, the number on
public exhibition still remain very small. The only captive herd known
to the writer is that of the Duke of Bedford, in Woburn Park, England,
which is at once the admiration and envy of all collectors of living
wild animals.
The White-Tailed Gnu, (_Connochaetes gnu_), once was abundant in South
Africa, south of the Vaal River. But it has shared the fate of all the
other large mammals of that region, and only a few scattered bands still
exist. Nearly all of the specimens now living in captivity were born in
captivity, for both species of Gnu take kindly to life in parks and
gardens.
Every way considered, the Gnu is an animal of odd and remarkable form.
It has a nose of strange shape, its horns are curiously formed, the hair
on its head and neck exhibits various peculiarities, and its hips are
oddly modeled. Its long, flowing tail is so horse-like that for many
years this animal was pictured and popularly known as the “Horned
Horse.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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