THE HAGENBECK ZOO.
SINCH the publication, some four years ago, of an English translation of Carl Hagenbeck's Thieren und Menschen, so much has been written of the Hagenbeck methods of exhibiting wild animals, and so many contrasts have been drawn between Zoos with and without cages, that there will no doubt be a large number of visitors attracted to Olympia to see for themselves the Hagenbeck collection of animals now on view in that much-enduring building. A certain proportion, perhaps, will finish their visit with somewhat mixed feelings. That will particularly be the case with those who know beet the conditions under which animals are shown to the public, in Regent's Park. For in bringing the" Wonder Zoo" to London, and in putting forward the many claims for it with which advertisement has made us familiar, what the proprietors have really done is to challenge a close com- parison with the methods of the London Zoological Gardens, and not all the comparisons which are possible favour the Olympia exhibition.
One or two of the features of the exhibition will be looked at with a great deal of interest. First, of course, because of the ease with which the idea is grasped, and the fundamental attraction of looking straight across at ferocious creatures without a bar between, is the group of lions on their rockwork. Here arc seven lions in a corner of the building, sitting, lying, prowling, sleeping, and roaring on a mass of rockwork, with a background painted to resemble caves and tropical vegetation, and there is nothing between them and their visitors except an empty trench across which they cannot jump. These lions, you are informed by the programme, are shown in exactly the same way that they are shown in the Thierpark at Stellizigen, and the width of the trench, therefore, may be taken to be the same, that is, twenty.eight feet. Carl Hagenbeck, some years ago, before substituting a trench for railings, made various experiments with lions and tigers in order to test their powers of jumping. He fastened a stuffed pigeon to the branch of a tree about ten feet from the ground, and then in turn let loose lions, tigers, and panthers in the enclosure under the tree. The lions and tigers could not get near the branch, and only jumped six feet six inches. The panthers could touch the branch, but could not bring down the pigeon. In long jumping the panthers and tigers could cover ten feet without a run, but could no doubt have done much more with a run; Hagenbeck thought fourteen feet, but considering that a man can jump more than twice as far with a run as he can without, his estimate is probably a good deal under the mark. If the sporting record for a standing long jump is eleven feet, four inches, and for a running long jump twenty- four feet eleven inches, an exceptional lion, tiger, or panther would surely be able to cover more than fourteen feet. Any- how, taking fourteen feet as an outside jump, Hagenbeck decided that he would be on the safe side by providing at Stellingen a trench twenty-eight feet wide between his lions and their visitors. At Olympia his succeesors have spread tan at the bottom of the trench in order to prevent the lions from damaging themselves if they should fall in accidentally. But they seem to take not very much notice either of the trench or of their visitors, and merely provide a mild thrill by occasionally standing and roaring either at the baboons in the far corner of the building, or at the unconcerned peacocks and macaws in the aviary next to them. If lions will jump for stuffed pigeons, live peacocks should tempt them further.
The baboon enclosure is another attractive piece of work. The Monkey Rock, we are told, is "the latest and moat ingenious of all the Hagenbeck contrivances for keeping animals in captivity under healthy and national conditions," and is "an exact reproduction of the rocks in Abyssinia on _which the monkeys live when they are free." It is a large structure of artificial stonework, modelled with ledges, crevices, platforms, and trunks of trees, and on it there is a herd of sixty or seventy Arabian baboons, which appear to be thoroughly at home and fill their corner of the build- ing with a loud and varied clamour. Baboons have a large vocabulary of sounde, and here you can watch a number of them behaving in different ways and uttering different sounds in combination ; they chatter, scold, bleat, and squeal, but the most characteristic note is that of the old males, who at intervals eeem to utter a sort of proclamation to those in their neighbourhood. "Ur, or, ur, ur," is what it sounds like, and thus, perhaps, does age and experience inculcate law and virtue among the youth of Abyssinian rocks. The young baboons play and swing on the tree branches, and the old baboons cuff them and put them in their proper places, or sit coddling under ledges of rock. They, like the lions, are separated from spectators by a trench ; but, except for the old males, the troop on Monkey Rock looks unenterprising and harmless enough.
Other encloaures have less novelty. The Kindergarten is something of a freak, and it is amusing to see young bears, young hyenas, lion cubs, and puppies playing together in very good humour; the lion cubs stalk each other and spring and slip and roll and thump about on the sawdust floor, and the hyenas appear to occupy themselves chiefly in going up behind other animals and biting their tails, but they are respectful when the other animals turn round. A young lady ependa her day in the Kindergarten, and sometimes threatens the animals with a broomstick, but otherwise the cubs seem to give her little trouble, and the bears are confiding and affectionate. This "happy family" system is extended else- where. In the "Bird Village" there are flamingoes and cranes from Numidia and Cochin China, and at the "Water Hole" there is a gathering of elands, zebras, white-bearded gnus, ostriches, cranes, white swans, black swans, Canadian geese, and upland geese—a mingling of species at a " water- hole " which is more curious than interesting. Zebras and black swans do not suit the same wildernesses, nor do upland geese and gnus. Here, indeed, the "Wonder Zoo" is not so much a zoological achievement as a menagerie, and in other direction, the methods adopted are frankly those of the showman—the travelling cages of the tigers, for example, and the" Guinea Pig Castle," which is a model chalet inhabited by cavies, who munch bread and cabbage leaves separated from the visitor by not so much as a yard of trench. Here again the question asserts itself of the difference between Olympia and Regent's Park.
The real question which remains is the value for zoological exhibition purposes of the rockwork terrace. There can be MO doubt that the animals are seen to better advantage on these high slopes and open space,; we get a far truer notion of their movements and the strength and symmetry of their bodies. But the terraces have their disadvantages. They are obviously hard to keep clean, and in Regent's Park. where rata are an ever-recurring nuisance, they might pro- vide very inconvenient harbourage. However, that is a point which will shortly be put to a very thorough test. The Mappin terraces will be finished in the spring, and when they are in full working order many "queations will be settled or reopened—among them the necessity of dealing with a large space facing north and in complete shade, and the possibilities of rendering a big enclosure proof against rata.
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