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 new Small-Mammal House, erected and occupied in 1905, is a very
different structure from the temporary building which formerly occupied
the site. The present building is a twin of the Ostrich House, and in it
much effort has been expended in devising ways and means to keep its
living inhabitants clean, odorless and in good health. Owing, however,
to the musky odors secreted by many of the civet cats and members of the
Marten Family, it is beyond human power to keep a large collection such
as this building contains without a certain amount of wild-animal odor.
Most difficult of all collections to settle satisfactorily in a modern
zoological park or garden is the great _omnium gatherum_ of small
species—and some large ones, also—which fall within the meaning of the
term “small mammals.” The number of mammalian miscellanea which can not
have buildings all their own is really very great. In addition to that
there are always with us a considerable number of young and tender
animals which require small quarters, and close attention. The visitor
will therefore always find in the Small-Mammal House a great array of
viverrine animals, of tropical squirrels and other small rodents, of
mustelines, the nasuas, the small marsupials, young leopards, the lynxes
and their relatives, baby bears, and many other species.
Attention is invited to the great variety of cages in and around this
building, of which there are five different types. The total number is
176. All those on the western side are adjustable as to their bottoms
and sides, so that it is easy to throw several cages into one, and make
cages either very long or very high. The idea of the collapsible cage,
and also the general plan of it, has been copied from the model
developed and in use in the Zoological Garden of Frankfort, Germany, by
Director A. Seitz, to whom this acknowledgment is justly due. It will be
noticed that every animal in this building enjoys the use of an outdoor
cage, which connects directly with its interior quarters.
Of such an odd mixture of animals as we are now to consider, anything
like a perfect systematic zoological arrangement is a practical
impossibility; but as far as it is possible, we will take up the animals
by groups.
On the whole, the most striking animals in the Small-Mammal House are
the small cats and lynxes. Of the spotted cats, the Serval, (_Felis
serval_), of Africa, is one of the rarest. Its long, slender legs, small
head, slender body and round spots proclaim it a near relative of the
cheetah.
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