THE GARDENS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ZOOLOGY, ANTWERP: DIRECTOR, M. F.
L’HOEST
The Society of Zoology at Antwerp was founded July 21, 1843. The
Gardens then consisted of but three and a half acres of land lying
outside the old fortifications of the city, for which a capital of
100,000 francs was subscribed. In 1843 Pierre Joseph de Caters was
President and M. Jacques Kets was Director. M. François L’Hoest was
appointed Director in 1888. The personnel of the Gardens comprises
eighty-eight employés. The animals’ food costs 112,000 francs yearly.
During the year 1900 the total receipts (including 152,951 francs
taken at the gates) amounted to 31,299,470 francs. In 1900, 32,763,336
francs’ worth of animals were bought and 33,792,396 francs’ worth of
animals sold. Public sales are held annually. Fertile poultry eggs are
sold at one franc each, guaranteed pure bred; if proved not fertile,
they are replaced by others.
The Gardens, which are close to the railway-station, are open from
April to September from 6 a.m. to sunset, and from October to March
from 7 a.m. to sunset. There are numerous grand concerts. The price of
admission to the Gardens is one franc for adults and fifty centimes for
children under twelve years. The lions are fed at 5 p.m. in summer, 4
p.m. in winter, and the otters at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.
A grand entrance to the Gardens, to replace the present provisional
one, is under consideration. On entering, one sees on the left the
Grand Palais des Fêtes, opened in 1897 in the presence of His Majesty
King Leopold II. The Palais, which cost 1,300,000 francs, contains a
terrace and balcony, a restaurant, a café and billiard-rooms, a vast
promenade, a marble saloon, a great concert-hall to seat 3,000, a
vestibule and grand staircase, and a winter garden; and in three large
rooms is a natural history museum. Opposite the Palais des Fêtes is a
wide open space covered with seats grouped round a central band-stand.
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.
We next come to the dairy, constructed in the ‘Renaissance flamandi’
style. The stalls contain twelve cows, which, before being brought in,
are submitted to the ‘tuberculin’ test; if they pass it, their milk is
certified free from all infectious germs. The price of milk is twenty
cents the glass, ‘guaranteed pure and not skimmed.’
[Illustration: KANGAROO.
(Photo by Ottomar Anschütz, Berlin)]
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. Passing a small seal grotto and
thatched house for llamas, we come to the Palais Egyptien, or elephant
and giraffe house. The paintings on the outside walls represent the
natives of foreign parts coming to offer to the city of Antwerp
examples of the most characteristic animals of their country.
This house contained four giraffes: one born in 1871, one in 1873,
one in 1875, and one in 1876 (in 1897 the Society refused an offer of
25,000 francs for one); some camels, common and Burchell’s zebras,
Indian and Sumatran rhinoceroses, and two Indian elephants. There is a
stuffed giraffe, which died in 1898, after having been in the menagerie
eighteen years, and the skeleton of an Indian elephant, which lived in
the Gardens from 1852 to 1880.
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.
A most imposing lion house is now encountered, after passing through
a fine sculptured entrance. It will be found very roomy inside, and
it contains a large number of dens, besides three large circular
open-air cages. In one of the latter were housed no less than seven
lion-cubs, all about six months old. Opposite the outside cages were
a couple of brindled gnus, a pair of leucoryx antelopes, and an
_Oryx beisa_, grazing in paddocks. In a house close by were lodged a
pair of full-grown hippopotami and a baby born in the Gardens. The
parents have bred no less than twelve youngsters between 1886 and
1900, the period of gestation being 238 days. Several young ones have
been sold to other Gardens for very large prices. Pony and donkey
carriages run about the Gardens carrying children. A very good band
played all the afternoon when I was there, and the Gardens were full
of fashionably-dressed people. Some of the statues in the Gardens are
very fine, notably a group representing an Indian horseman attacked
by jaguars. One of the things which will probably strike the visitor
most is the enormous number of ducks, the ponds literally swarming with
them.