Zoological Gardens

“ Most of the modern zoological gardens date from comparatively recent years, and there are a larger number stocked with a finer collection of animals, more suitably housed, than at any past time in the history of the world. According to a reference list compiled by Captain Stanley Flower, there were 102 actually existing public gardens or parks containing collections of wild animals in 1910, while there are also a considerable number of private collections. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Although this Garden is not large, it possesses a collection very complete in many species of animals, which are housed in the best-built and altogether the cleanest and best kept houses in any Zoological Garden in Europe. The animals, as a natural consequence, look well and happy, and many are bred in the Garden. ”

“ Our zoological gardens have the task of putting the living animal world before us. Happily we are doing this by far-sighted methods. To the Zoological Gardens of Berlin belongs the credit of having, to a continually increasing extent, arranged a display of the animal world in appropriate surroundings, and with reference to systematic classification and to its relations with geographical distribution and ethnological science, so far as one can assume the connection or companionship of certain species with man. ”

“ Bentley and I went to the Gardens of the Zoölogical Society, which are at the opposite end of Regent's Park from my lodgings. The Gardens are quite in a state of infancy; I have seen more curiosities in a swamp in America in one morning than is collected here since eighteen months; all, however, is well planned, clean, and what specimens they have are fine and in good condition. ”

“ ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, sometimes called Zoological Parks, institutions in which wild animals are kept in captivity. Their primary object is to gratify the pleasure most persons take in viewing at close range the curious and beautiful living products of nature, but they serve also as means of instruction in natural history, providing material for museums and for investigations in comparative anatomy and pathology, while they may have a commercial value as pleasure resorts, or as show grounds for the display of animals that have been imported or bred for sale. ”

“ Although precedents and models for things to be done were sought far and wide, in all save a very few instances, our needs were so peculiar, and so different from those of other zoological gardens and parks, we have found really very little that we could copy. ”

“ The collection of animals and birds in these Zoological Gardens is one of the finest in Europe, and the Gardens are especially famous for their hippopotami, which have frequently bred there. The first house we come to is the monkey house, with cleverly constructed doors to keep the draught out. Here is a specimen of the orang-outang from Borneo, a chacma, and a chimpanzee. ”

“ The Botanical Department, besides its botanical specimens, has a museum of woods similar to that at Kew Gardens. A Cabinet of Anatomy contains a collection of skeletons of animals, &c. The Zoölogical Garden is the most interesting and most frequented part of the grounds. The lions, tigers, bears, elephants, hyenas, and other beasts have spacious enclosures, as in the Zoölogical Gardens at London, though not so well arranged, nor is the collection so extensive. ”

“ There are Zoological Gardens too, spread over another hill on the opposite side of the town: the cages for birds and animals are set among trees—high dark pines, with undergrowth of lighter green—and the animals are rather hard to find as you trudge up and down the steep paths. ”

“ However, I accept all your kind sayings as coming from a friend, and one himself devoted to that beautiful department of science, Ornithology." My subscribers are yet far from enough to pay my expenses, and my purse suffers severely for the want of greater patronage. The Zoölogical Gardens improve daily; they are now building winter quarters for the animals there. The specimens of skins from all parts of the world which are presented there are wonderful, but they have no place for them. ”

“ If you go to the Zoological Gardens you ought to be a good walker and not easily tired. The animals are in cages, but they are not all close together; there are long stretches of green grass and trees and beautiful flower-beds between, and to go over the Zoo thoroughly takes a very long time. ”

“ All the zoological gardens in the world at present would not be nearly large enough to contain representative specimens of all the varieties of animals which have from time to time found a home on this earth. ”

“ The London Zoological Society has certainly the merit of taking the lead in this description of garden; but Mr. Cross has not only proceeded more rapidly than they have done, but has erected more suitable and more imposing structures than are yet to be found in the gardens in the Regent's Park. What is there, for example, in the latter garden which can be at all compared with the circular glass building of 300 ft. in diameter, combining a series of examples of tropical quadrupeds and birds, and of exotic plants? In the plan of this building, the animals (lions, tigers, leopards, &c.) ”

“ The varied natural conditions form an almost ideal site for a collection of animals; great care and skill have been expended on the designing and construction of the houses, the collection receives many accessions from various government departments, including the foreign consular service, and the whole institution is rapidly becoming a model of what is possible. The Zoological Gardens in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, resemble the gardens of the Zoological Society of London, on which they were modelled. ”

“ In fact, in this respect, the zoölogical garden of to-day affords but few more advantages than any of those traveling shows that come here every season....I have simply found that an animal, as closely confined as most of them are in zoölogical gardens, retains none of its natural habits ”

“ But on account of the difficulty of securing and maintaining certain species, and their shortness of life in close captivity, our zoological gardens can only properly carry out their programme so long as it is possible for them to continually renew their stock of animals. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Having returned to the big conservatory close by, you find another conservatory full of paroquets and small cage-birds from hot countries.
The middle of the Garden is cut by an artificial river, upon the banks of which are placed enclosures for geese, ducks, and water-birds. It forms in front of the lawn of the big conservatories a large lake covered with swans, flocks of ducks, some cormorants and seals.
The monkey house is an oblong building 15 metres long and 9 metres broad. The walls are covered with earthenware slabs. ”

“ The bear dens are next to be seen, near a duck-pond, upon which were swimming hundreds of ducks. There are four polar bears housed near here. Passing the wapiti and moose yards, we come to a large aviary, outside which is a monument to Darwin. More than 100,000 pairs of birds are annually bought and sold in these Gardens.
Next in order is a large children’s playground, replete with swings for their amusement. There is a very picturesque rockery for wild sheep and aurochs, and American bison enclosures backed with rockwork. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A good amount of bedding-out is done; for summer planting alone more than 4,500 plants are used annually. The houses contain collections of orchids, palms, tree and other ferns (the tallest Balantium antarcticum in Europe is said to be there) , agaves, azaleas, and various other stove and greenhouse plants. One house has been set apart chiefly for tropical economic plants.
The collection of animals numbers actually 394 mammals of 127 species, of which there are no less than 91 apes of 29 species, and 154 ungulates of 46 species. ”

“ While looking forward to the establishment of a system of sanctuaries which may serve to protect examples of the present life of all the lands, it is also well to consider what can be done by local authorities and by individuals in the same direction. The numerous zoölogical and botanical gardens which have been established in different parts of the world have in part the same motive that is to be embodied in the larger institutions which we would see founded; they seek to preserve the interesting and instructive animals and plants, and in some cases contrive to perpetuate the kinds. ”

“ He had bought a large property at Stellingen, and here, in two years’ time, he hoped to amalgamate his whole collection in one vast park. On one huge square plot of ground would be the stables for the elephants and the dens for the carnivorous animals, with the training cages in the centre. The whole of the rest of the land would be devoted to buffaloes, zebras, antelopes, deer, ibex, etc. ”

“ Here are to be found dog-kennels, cow-houses, stables, pheasantries, poultry-houses and agricultural products. At Marseilles the Society has [Pg 13] another Zoological Garden, in which imported animals rest and get acclimatized before being sent up to Paris.
SEA-LION SUCKLING ITS YOUNG, JARDIN D’ACCLIMATATION, PARIS.
The Jardin d’Acclimatation is situated in that part of the Bois de Boulogne which extends between the Porte des Sablons and the Porte de Madrid, and runs along the Boulevard Maillot. ”

“ The following were born in the Garden in 1901: 346 animals of 35 species, including 3 lions, 2 leopards, 1 brown bear, 5 wolves, 2 kangaroos, 1 Shetland pony, 1 zebra, 1 llama, 1 camel, 2 nylgai antelopes, several deer, goats and sheep, some Angora cats, and a number of small rodents. ”

“ This collection included fourteen wapiti, seven zebus, two mountain zebras, two Burchell’s zebras, and thirteen kangaroos, besides other animals and a valuable collection of birds.
In 1831 the King presented to the Society the collection of animals in the Tower. The armadillos bred in the Gardens. An elephant paddock and pond were erected.
In 1833 a parrot house was erected.
In 1834 an additional space of ten acres of ground along the south-western verge of the South Garden was acquired. Examples of twelve species of mammals and twenty-six species of birds were exhibited for the first time. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ When it revived, the joyful parents, with their brood fairly launched on the journey of life, proudly led them down the cottage hill, through the garden, and along an osage orange hedge into the cherry orchard. These charming birds even enter towns and villages, where the gardens are of good size and guns are forbidden, sometimes going several miles to feed, and returning every evening to their roosts in ivy or brushy trees and shrubs. ”

“ The abundant-room idea on which the Zoological Park was founded, and our desire for the full utilization of the works of nature, have from the first taxed the creative faculties of the Society to the utmost. ”

“ It is an inexorable law of Nature that the smallest animals shall have the shortest periods of life, and in a zoological park a small hoofed animal may be here to-day and gone to-morrow. In the following enumeration, mention will be made only of those species which are likely to remain longest on exhibition; and it may be observed that in this building there will be found various animals which are neither deer nor antelopes. ”