Popular Official Guide to the New York Zoological Park 9
The Kangaroos.—Seldom is there found in Nature a group of large-animal
species whose members are so monotonously similar in general appearance
as are the Kangaroos and Wallabies, of Australia. The great majority are
either gray or gray-brown, and the only striking variation is found in
the big Red Kangaroo, (_Macropus rufus_).
THE WHITE MOUNTAIN GOAT, No. 48.
Fortunate indeed is the zoological park or garden which can exhibit even
one living specimen of the White Mountain Goat. It is a very difficult
matter to take an animal from a rarified dry atmosphere, at an elevation
of 8,000 feet, and induce it to live at sea level, in a dense and humid
atmosphere, on food to which it is by nature wholly unaccustomed.
We have been successful in establishing here, on a breeding basis this
rare and difficult animal, (_Oreamnos montanus_). One kid was born in
1908 and another in 1910, and both have thriven, the former now being so
large as to look like an adult specimen.
For some subtle reason which we can not explain, these animals—like the
chamois and mouflon quartered in small pens near the Small-Mammal
House—do not thrive in any of the large, rock-bound corrals of Mountain
Sheep Hill. They are kept in a rock-paved corral near the Pheasant
Aviary and the Crotona Entrance, and to their use has been devoted a
rustic barn, which they shelter in or climb over, according to the
weather. To see them walking nonchalantly over the steep roof, or
perching upon its peak, is one of the drollest sights of the Park.
The White Goat, sometimes mistakenly called “goat antelope,” belongs to
a small group known as the Rupicaprines or rock antelopes. It inhabits
many different kinds of territory, but usually the rugged sides and
summits of high mountains, at irregular intervals from southwestern
Montana and northern Washington, northward to the head of Cook Inlet on
the coast of Alaska. (See map of distribution, with label.) The valley
of the upper Yukon contains practically no goats. They are most abundant
in southeastern British Columbia, where in a very small area, in
September, 1905, Mr. John M. Phillips and the writer actually counted
239 individuals.
Of the five animals now exhibited in the Park, three were captured a few
days after their birth, in May, 1905, about seventy miles north of Fort
Steele, British Columbia. They arrived here October 9, 1905, and up to
this date they have thriven as well, and grown as rapidly, as they would
have in a state of nature. Their food consists of the best clover hay
obtainable, and crushed oats. When they shed their coats, in the spring,
they are almost as white as snow, but with months of use, their pelage
becomes soiled and slightly discolored.
A fully adult male mountain goat stands from 39 to 41 inches in shoulder
height, and weighs, _on scales_, from 258 to 300 pounds.
THE PRONG-HORNED ANTELOPE.
The Prong-Horned Antelope, (_Antilocapra americana_), is an animal in
which Americans should now take special interest. Structurally, the
Prong-Horn is so peculiar that it has been found necessary to create for
it a special zoological family, called _Antilocapridae_, of which it is
the sole member. This is due to the following facts: (1) This is the
only living mammal possessing hollow horns (growing over a bony core)
which sheds them annually; (2) it is the only animal possessing a hollow
horn which bears a prong, or bifurcation; (3) it has no “dew claws,” as
other ruminant animals have; (4) the horn is placed directly above the
eye; (5) the long hair of the body and neck is tubular; and (6) that on
the rump is erectile. Beyond all possibility of doubt, it will be our
next large species to become extinct, and if we may judge by the rate at
which the bands have been disappearing during the last fifteen years,
ten years more will, in all probability, witness the extermination of
the last individuals now struggling to exist outside of rigidly
protected areas. It was the intention of the Society to make liberal
provision for the study of the species while it is yet possible to
obtain living specimens, for fifty years hence our graceful and
zoologically interesting Prong-Horn will be as extinct as the dodo.
Unfortunately, however, it fares so badly on the Atlantic coast, there
will, no doubt, be periods wherein this species will be temporarily
absent from the Park.
[Illustration: AMERICAN PRONG HORNED ANTELOPE.]
Forty years ago this animal inhabited practically the whole of the great
pasture region which stretches eastward from the Rocky Mountains to the
western borders of Iowa and Missouri. Northward its range extended far
into Manitoba; southward it went far beyond the Rio Grande, and it also
ranged southwestward through Colorado and Nevada to southern California.
Its chosen home was the treeless plains, where the rich buffalo grass
and bunch grass afforded abundant food, but it also frequented the
beautiful mountain parks of Wyoming and Colorado. It even lived
contentedly in the deserts of the southwest, where its voluntary
presence, coupled with the absence of water, constituted a problem which
has puzzled the brain of many a desert traveller.
[Illustration: BACTRIAN CAMEL.]
To-day, all observers agree that in all regions wherein the antelope are
not rigidly protected, they are going fast. Those in the Yellowstone
Park are protected against man only to be devoured by the wolves which
infest the Park.
Unfortunately, the Prong-Horned Antelope is not a hardy animal. The kids
are very difficult to rear; they are at all times easily hurt by
accident, and even in a state of nature this species suffers more
severely in winter than any other North American ruminant. Often the
herds drift helplessly before the blizzards, with numerous deaths from
freezing and starvation, and in spring the survivors come out thin and
weak.
THE CAMEL HOUSE, No. 39.
Speaking in a collective sense, the Camel is much more than an ordinary
animal unit in a zoological park. On the high plains of central and
southwestern Asia, and throughout the arid regions of Africa, it is an
institution. Without it, many portions of the Old World would be
uninhabitable by man. Take either Dromedary or Bactrian Camel, and it is
a sad-eyed, ungainly, slow-moving creature, full of plaints and
objections; but remember that it goes so far back toward the foundations
of man’s dynasty, that beside it the oldest American history seems but a
record of yesterday. It is only a species of the utmost tenacity which
could for fifty centuries or more withstand constant use and abuse by
man without being altered out of all resemblance to its original form.
All races of mankind and all breeds of domestic animals save one, change
and continue to change, indefinitely, but the Camels apparently go on
the same, forever.
[Illustration: ALPACA.]
The Bactrian Camel, (_Camelus bactrianus_), he of the long shaggy
hair—_when not shedding_—and the two great humps, is the beast of heavy
burden, the four-footed freight-car of the desert sands. He can carry
550 pounds of freight, for three or four days between drinks; but a
swift pace is not for him. It is an animal of this remarkable species,
from distant Turkestan, southwestern Asia, which daily in fine weather
offers its services as a riding animal, at the stand near the Large
Bird-House.
It is unfortunate that the Bactrian Camel is in its finest pelage only
in winter, when visitors to the Park are few, and camel-riding is out of
the question. Promptly upon the approach of warm weather and a million
visitors, it sheds its long, shaggy brown coat, and stands forth as if
shorn by a shearer. Of this species, the Zoological Society possesses
two fine specimens (the gift of Captain John S. Barnes), one of which
will at all times be found regularly exhibited at the Camel House, close
by the Crotona (southwest) Entrance.
[Illustration: VICUNIA.]
The Dromedary, or Single-Humped Camel, (_Camelus dromedarius_), is a
smaller animal than the preceding, of lighter build, and therefore
capable of much more speed in travelling. This species never is clothed
with long hair.
Next to the Camel House and corrals is the installation for the nearest
relatives of those species,—the Llamas, Guanacos and other cameloids of
South America.
THE LLAMA HOUSE, No. 38.
_Collection of Cameloids was presented by Mr. Robert S. Brewster._
The arid regions of South America are inhabited by four species of
long-necked, long-haired, soft-footed animals, so closely related to the
camels of the Old World that they are called _cameloids_. There are four
species. The llama and alpaca are in a state of domestication, and are
supposed to have been derived from the wild guanaco and vicunia. All of
them might almost be described as small-sized, humpless camels; and
their tempers and mental traits are as odd as their forms.
The ordinary cameloid is a quiet and inoffensive creature; but the
exception is a rogue of rogues. It will bite with the persistence of a
bull-dog, and with its massive, chisel-like lower incisors inflicts ugly
wounds. At times a llama or vicunia becomes actually insane, and seeks
to destroy every living creature within its reach. Regardless of
punishment, such creatures attack their keepers and their herd-mates,
spit upon visitors, and rage up and down their corrals in most absurd
fashion. Occasionally such individuals require to be completely
isolated.
The Llama, (_Lama glama_), is the largest and strongest member of the
group. Its body is covered with a thick mass of long, wavy hair of fine
texture, which may be either brown, white, white and brown, or almost
black. The head and legs are short-haired like those of the guanaco.
From time immemorial, this animal has been used as a beast of burden,
and in the Andes has played an important part in the mineral industry by
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