The zoological gardens of Europe, their history and chief featuresPeel, C. V. A. (Charles Victor Alexander)
History
The zoological gardens of Europe, their history and chief features
Peel, C. V. A. (Charles Victor Alexander)
Zoos
On entering this Garden my camera, for the second time during my tour
of the Continental Zoos, was wrested from me, in spite of my pleadings
in the very best German I could muster.
Passing some pheasant pens, the lion house is first encountered,
containing, amongst other animals, three baby lions and two baby
Himalayan bears. A second house of carnivorous animals contained
more lions, two caracals, some pumas, some small cats, and hyænas,
including a specimen of the brown hyæna, rarely seen in zoological
collections.
A remarkably fine elephant house contained a large African elephant,
two Indian elephants, two black-and-white tapirs from Sumatra (the
first I had seen in captivity), and two hippopotami together in a huge
tank. But the animal for which this Garden is justly famous is the huge
black-faced ape, known as the gorilla from West Africa, the only known
specimen in captivity in the world. Curiously enough, this priceless
animal was purchased from England. What a pity it did not find its
way into our London Zoo! Since writing the above, Herr Carl Hagenbeck
of Hamburg informs me that he is expecting a young gorilla, which has
been caught for him in West Africa. The ape is housed in a large and
lofty cage with glass front in the monkey house. I should say it was
quite young, and not yet half grown. It was not particularly lively on
the occasion of my visit, but spent its time in picking its nose and
staring at the huge crowd.
There was an amusing chimpanzee in the next cage, and close by some
large baboons. The exterior of this monkey house is very prettily built
and decorated. The next house of importance is the antelope house,
containing brindled gnus, water-buck, nylgai, zebras, camels, asses,
and Shetland ponies. In the centre of the Garden, as usual, there was
a band-stand surrounded by countless seats, not far from a restaurant.
Here a good band played all the afternoon, and the crowd round it was
large. There were the usual sheds for American buffaloes (I wish I had
counted how many of these animals I have now seen in captivity), yaks,
and zebus.
[Illustration: DUCK-POND, BRESLAU.]
There was a large collection of bears in a castle, and a great number
of wild sheep and goat pens. In a little house I noticed a litter of
six pretty little foxes. There were some large duck-ponds, and several
deer sheds and paddocks. Here I noticed (May 20) a sambur deer and a
Sumatran sambur (_Servus equinus_), just out of the velvet--the first I
have seen this year. There was a large bird-of-prey house, effectively
backed with rockery, containing some remarkable birds, notably the
bateleur eagle from Africa, the handsome Brazilian _Œnops urubitinga_,
_Sarcorhamphus papa_ from tropical South America, _Vultur occipitalis_,
_Aquila nævia_, _Buteo buteo_, _Grys indicus_, and many others. This
fine aviary was given in 1898 by Robert Cuno.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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