C. V. A. Peel

“ Turning to the left round a very large café, with seats outside capable of accommodating several thousand people, we come to a very large and lofty bird-of-prey aviary. Close to a children’s playground will be found some stables, containing common domestic asses, Somali wild ass, Burchell’s and mountain zebra—a cross between a donkey and a zebra—and the inevitable Shetland pony, with which they always seem so pleased in Continental Gardens. ”

“ The polar bears form a beautiful picture in their light-built cage under a knoll covered with noble forest trees that dip their roots in the shady waters of the lake. A moss-grown staircase leads up to the pits which contain Himalayan black bears and a Russian brown bear. They take life easily, many reaching the age of fourteen to twenty years. ”

“ Clarence Bartlett the Zoological Society is lucky in possessing a thoroughly practical and clever man as superintendent, and in Dr. Philip Lutley Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., etc., the Society possesses as Secretary one of the most energetic, learned, and distinguished of zoologists in Europe. No wonder, then, that with such men at its head, and under the Presidency of His Grace the Duke of Bedford, this Garden has remained, and will remain, one of the best managed, the most healthy, and one of the richest in Europe. ”

“ The number of big, shady trees, the ponds, the picturesque buildings, the neatly-laid-out walks, the large open lawns, and the beds of flowers, all help to make this Garden one of the prettiest in Europe. ”

“ On paying one mark entrance fee, one is confronted first by two large deer enclosures with thatched shelter-houses in the centre. Close by is a lofty bird-of-prey aviary. Beyond an Australian wombat and some pens of kangaroos is a pretty pen of doves, wading birds, and ducks, in which are planted some little Christmas-trees. We next come to the monkey house, which, however, is small in comparison with ours in London. In the centre of the Garden is a huge duck lake, with a very large concert-hall and café opposite. Keeping to the left of the lake, a four-horned sheep from Morocco is to be seen. ”

“ The keynote struck at that meeting was that the Zoological Society should be developed as a Scientific Society, and that its leading aim should be to stimulate a love of natural history amongst the people. ”

“ Beyond the lake and water-fowl pond stands the monkey house, a large white building of Moorish design, 800 square yards in area, the boast of the Gardens and the finest in Europe. There is a central [Pg 205] large cage (90 by 18 feet) , replete with amusements, such as the village pump and well, the great wheel, aerial flight, rocking-horse, and automatic running donkeys, that never fail to please the animals and cause endless fun to the spectators. The side cages usually contain specimens of the larger baboons and the more delicate monkeys and lemurs. The house is lofty and well lighted. ”

“ Almost every large town in Germany has its Zoological Garden, and, as it usually contains a [Pg viii] concert-hall and other similar attractions, people flock to it, and are insensibly led to take an interest in the wild animals which they see around them. It seems to me a pity that we do not make our few English Gardens equally attractive. The result would be, I feel sure, that more people would become interested in wild animals, and probably many of our large towns would start Gardens of their own. ”

“ From the terrace of the restaurant a very picturesque view of the Garden is to be had. On the left hand of the pond are a sheep and goat rockery, and a building containing Barbary sheep, thar, onahura, and a herd of moufflon—that extremely beautiful black, brown, and white wild goat. The latter have frequently bred in the Garden. In Corsica and Sardinia, for want of game laws, they are fast dying out. There is a new fox and jackal house, brick-built in the Gothic style, and having on one side a massive tower. The cages are roomy, the floors cemented, and the sanitary arrangements good. ”

“ It is curious that we in England make so few pets of animals. We have, of course, cats, dogs, and horses, but we go little further. I do not mean to say that every lady should have her pet lion about her, but there are other pets quite as dear and quite as affectionate as the horse, dog, and cat.
Besides Clair Heliot’s lions, there was a permanent lion house, containing a pair of lions, a pair of tigers, and a particularly fine jaguar.
There is a cool underground aquarium well worth the penny extra they charge for admission. ”

“ We now come to prettily thatched kangaroo sheds, and in front of them is a duck-pond well stocked with ducks and swans. Next we find an ostrich and cassowary house, built in the Eastern style. Here I quite mistook the grunt of the ostrich for the dull roar or grunt of the lion, as I had often done before in the African jungle. Close at hand is a fine lofty bird-of-prey aviary. Outside nearly all the cages were coloured pictures of the birds, with a map of the world below them showing the distribution of each. ”

“ There is a large and handsome antelope and camel house, with dome and minarets, containing Shetland ponies, camels, zebus, white-tailed gnus, an Oryx leucoryx, black buck, an ostrich, a rhea, some donkeys, a zebra, a roan antelope, and a Cape hartebeest, the last two rarely seen in collections—in fact, the Cape hartebeest is the first I saw on the Continent. He was very nervous and restless, and utterly refused to stand still to be photographed. A lion house contained two remarkably fine lions.
It is curious how wonderfully well lions thrive in captivity and what fine manes they grow. ”

“ Taken all round, this Garden is far and away better than any other garden at home or on the Continent for the beauty of its buildings, the picturesqueness of its grounds, and the wealth of its animals. This state of things has been brought about in a large measure through the energy and forethought of the Emperor of Germany, himself a sportsman and lover of animals. ”

“ When on the open plains of North-east Africa, I saw hundreds upon hundreds of ‘Swayne’s hartebeest,’ but so far no specimen of this antelope has been seen alive in Europe. I never saw any very young calves, and my theory is that the cows, when about to give birth, retreat either into very thick bush or so far away from all caravan-tracks that they are seldom encountered. Another common African animal never seen in captivity is the African rhinoceros, which is much more plentiful than its cousin the Indian rhino, which, on the other hand, is frequently met with in captivity. ”

“ One of the prettiest sights in the Gardens was a family of water-buck—two female, one male, and a baby. The wild-sheep grotto, surmounted by a tower, was extremely picturesque, and up and down the rockwork jumped guanacos, alpacas, llamas, wild goats, Barbary sheep, moufflons, ibex and chamois. There was a pretty duck-pond and lake, crossed by two wooden bridges. The airy lion house, with seventeen dens, contained a jaguar, lions, leopards, cheetah, two black leopards and pumas. Close by was a camel house, a monkey house with outdoor summer cages, and a very good collection of pheasants. ”

“ An outdoor band appears to be the only attraction of the kind in our Gardens at home, such a thing as an evening concert being almost unheard of.
Close by the concert-hall is a reindeer shed, a llama paddock, a bear pit, and a very tame collie dog kept in a cage as a rarity. Close to a duck-pond containing [Pg 47] sheldrake, wigeon, pochard and swans, there is a pen containing a kangaroo and young, some more llamas, and some zebus.
Taken as a whole, these Gardens are neither pretty nor rich in animals, and are, in consequence, perhaps scarcely worth a visit. ”

“ Just as human beings die of consumption through the want of fresh air, so do our anthropoid apes and other animals often die in captivity through being shut up, winter and summer, in hot-houses devoid of fresh air. We are far behind Germany and America in our knowledge of the breeding and cross-breeding of wild animals, and yet there must be many influential men in England who would assist in the formation of a National Park for such a purpose, thereby furthering the cause of science and conferring a great benefit on the nation. ”

“ Crows and jackdaws are often to be seen upon the backs of cows and sheep, but one would have imagined that a deer was too timid an animal to allow a large bird to perch upon it.
In the Gardens is a fine concert-hall; and here I may remark that in nearly all foreign Zoological Gardens there is such a music-hall, which on concert nights is packed to overflowing, adding largely to the revenue of the Gardens. It has always been a puzzle to me why our Council in London do not try to attract more people by the erection of such a hall and the engagement of the best artistes. ”

“ The lion house, constructed on the very best principles, is one of the finest in Europe, and contains German East African and Somali lions, tigers, leopards, black leopards, jaguars, and a very curious light-coloured variety of the jaguar, the only one known in captivity.
There were some cleverly constructed duck-ponds with pleasing rockwork, trees, and waterfalls, and opposite to them was a large crane house. Several of the houses are built in exact imitation of Chinese and Indian temples and pagodas, which give the Gardens a very Eastern appearance. ”

“ After all, are not some human beings just the same?
Further to the left you find a picturesque little pagoda for the elephant, with a space railed off in front in which he can take air and exercise and have a cooling bath in the deep water-tank.
Crossing a bridge over the street below, we come to a long viaduct, under each arch of which is an enclosure for birds or animals. On the extreme right was a moufflon, which also obligingly stood up with its fore-legs on the rail in front of it in order to have its picture taken. ”

“ Here is to be seen a hippopotamus. Opposite the tank is a beaver enclosure; not far from the beaver house is the otter tank, with perpetually flowing water. The so-called elephant house is a plaster building in the Moorish style, with little towers and minarets. Going through folding-doors, we step into a wide hall. Near the door are the equidæ. The idea of uniting the antelopes and elephants is for the sake of economy. The pens are separated from each other by rolling doors. The animals are fed from the front. There are one African and two Indian elephants. ”

“ The co-founder of the Zoological Garden in Berlin laid out the plans for the Garden, and the King and Queen and Royal household gave it their highest approbation. Every kind of wild animal was to be kept in as free a manner as possible. And the founders conceived the idea of laying out, between the animal buildings and the neighbouring houses, a park and garden for the public, so that, besides the interesting sight of the animals, there should also be a pleasant promenade. ”

“ Why, I can show you photographs of my zebras and flamingoes, my lions and my antelopes, standing out in deep snow, and preferring it to a stuffy enclosed den. The secret of how to keep wild animals well is fresh air. They must have fresh air. All my lions can walk from their warm dens out into an open-air den. That’s why they are well. Your lion house in London is no good. You have outside cages, it is true, but the animals are only allowed there in the summer months. Must animals be allowed fresh air only in the summer? ”

“ The restaurant was completed for the opening of the Garden in 1875. The great hall, with its ante-rooms, was originally destined for a scientific and artistic museum; but the people, as of old, hungered more for pleasure than for science, so that the whole of the scientific collection had to be removed to the lumber-room above, and a theatre and stage took its place.
According to the opinion of Carl Hagenbeck, the monkey house at Münster is the best erection of its kind in the world. The monkeys can be outside or inside as they please all the year round. ”

“ We now come to an unusually good collection of wild swine, including a pair of African wart hogs. Opposite these sheds are a number of extremely well-laid-out flower-beds; in fact, the whole Garden is rich in plants, flowers, and shady trees.
The elephant house, with large open-air enclosures, no longer contains ‘Betsy,’ the great female elephant, which has just died; whilst another male Indian elephant has been killed, as he was becoming dangerous. To-day only ‘Fanny’ (who came ten years ago) , and a small African elephant, just acquired, are to be found. ”

“ A third museum is found to be full of stuffed birds, eggs, and nests; some of the birds stuffed in their natural surroundings are very beautifully done. The zoological library adjoins. A fourth museum, built in 1894, contains a large collection of stuffed animals and a collection of shells. Here is a huge skeleton of an African elephant, with good tusks, and a stuffed giraffe; a whole unmounted hippopotamus skin, and a stuffed quagga, now extinct.
Close by this museum are some pens containing zebras and wild asses. The new bear house, built in 1897, contains a fine collection. ”

“ Opposite the otters’ tank is the cow house, holding forty cows, the little dairy at the side being much frequented during summer, when as many as a thousand glasses of milk are sold in a day. Close by the dairy is a picturesque enclosure of lawn and rockwork, inhabited by a herd of over twenty black buck of all ages. ”

“ It is somewhat of a bewildering place to find one’s way about in. Its collection of animals is very fine, and contains two or three especially good things. There are some pretty spots in it, and plenty of trees and shade. A fine lion house of no less than twenty-two cages contains a good collection of the big cats and bears, a number of the latter coming from Tonquin. Besides these bears, there are others in old but well-built bear-pits in another part of the Garden. Again, we find a pair of hartebeests, so seldom seen in captivity. ”

“ These animals had a spacious outside paddock. Close by were two Indian elephants in outside enclosures, and a young African tusker. The collection of bears was remarkably complete. It was amusing to watch the brown bears in their bath. In most Gardens the grizzlies and others are not provided with bathing-tanks, but are housed in pits or cages with drinking-water troughs only. This is somewhat unkind, for brown bears, and black ones, too, love the water as much as polars do; and on a hot day, if they have a tank, they will be found in it more often than not. ”

“ When I say ‘Garden,’ I mean a collection of animals in cages, with a number of cafés chantants dotted about. After passing the entrance, there is a large café in front of one, in which a really good band plays. Just opposite is a huge theatre, partly open to the air, and surrounding it are other smaller theatres and cafés. On the left are some bears and a good collection of foxes and wolves. In another house, in which is a large tank, there are two fine hippopotami. ”