ZOOLOGISCHER GARTEN, FRANKFORT-ON-MAIN: DIRECTOR, D. SEITZ
This Garden was founded in 1858. In 1895 the income was £10,250, and in
1900, £12,850--an increase of 25 per cent. in five years. The vexatious
custom of taking away one’s camera is in vogue also here.
On entering the Garden, which has an extent of seventeen and a half
acres, the visitor will be struck at once by the care taken of the
roads, paths, lawns, and flower-beds. The parrot stands are first
encountered, leading to an aviary containing a fine collection of
peacocks and Argus pheasants. Passing the band-stand and a pond on
our right, we come to a large lion house. This is quite one of the
best constructed lion houses in Europe, and contains a young pair of
black-maned lions from Somaliland, and a pair of Abyssinian lions, the
male of which was given to Baron von Erlanger, the famous traveller,
by the Negus Menelik during the former’s last African expedition. The
female was given by Ras Makonnen. There is also to be seen here a
Siberian tiger. In summer this animal loses its thick coat, which comes
off in large flakes.
Close by is a house for smaller cats, and here I noticed a very
pretty little light-coloured fox, which has so far gone unnamed. It
was presented by Baron von Erlanger. The collection of marsupials
is very fine, no less than twenty kangaroos being bred there. The
following are represented: the red kangaroo (_Macropus rufus_), the
great gray kangaroo (_M. giganteus_), the black-tailed wallaby (_M.
ualabatus_), the wallaroo (_M. robustus_), the red-necked kangaroo
(_M. ruficollis_), _derliganus_, _conspicillaris_, _frenatus_, and
_penicillatus_.
There are also three species of wombats (_Perameles_), including
_Phascolomys wombat_, _P. latifrons_, _belidens_, _echidna_, etc. There
is a duck-billed platypus, and a squirrel as large as a cat.
Opposite these houses is the entrance to a sea-water aquarium (six
pfennig extra), situated in a large and dark underground vault, which
contains crabs, king-crabs, lobsters, a beautiful show of sea-anemones,
jelly-fish (which I do not remember having seen in tanks before),
sterlet, perch, eels, a salamander, and a tiny seal. Many of the
large species are fed with living fish, and it was interesting to
watch them catching the small prey. From the top of a high tower over
the aquarium, which forms with the duck lake below it one of the
most picturesque spots in the Garden, a good view is obtained of the
palatial concert-house across a large lake. In this old tower are owl
cages, containing, amongst others, the beautiful snowy owl.
[Illustration: TOWER AND LAKE, FRANKFORT-ON-MAIN.]
The monkey house is close by, containing a rich collection, as well as
reptiles and a row of small rodents. An orang-outang came as a present
from Sumatra, and is a fine specimen, extraordinarily clever, and
almost intellectual. Gigantic pythons are here seen, lolling on the
warm sands or bathing in the water-tanks. There are also enormous
lizards and iguanas. Next to this house are the hyænas, wolves,
jackals, and ice foxes, the latter even in spring keeping their white
coats. In 1890 half a dozen wolves were born in the Garden.
Passing wild-sheep and goat enclosures, we find in house No. 10 the
German native birds on one side, prettily arranged in cages framed with
tree-cork, and on the other side of the house are the ostriches and
cassowaries, with outside cages. House No. 11 is an extraordinarily
well-arranged structure of iron and glass, containing parrots and small
tropical birds on one side, and on the other the wading-birds, with
outside cages. The exotic-bird collection is contained in 120 small
cages and many large cages, forming one of the richest collections in
Germany. In 1901 there were exhibited in this house such varieties
as the Oriental roller (_Eurystomus orientalis_), Leache’s laughing
kingfisher (_Dacelo Leachii_), and many others of equal value.
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.
There is a fine Indian rhinoceros, his attendant keeper on the occasion
of my visit being busily engaged in cleaning his hide and searching
for ticks, much to the delight of the great pachyderm. There was a
pair of hippopotami in a large bath, both females, which were born
in Antwerp. They were presented by M. Conrad. ‘Binding’ arrived when
quite young, and soon developed into a great mass of flesh and fat; and
whenever ‘Elizabeth’ opens her mouth wide, everybody falls backwards in
astonishment.
In another enclosure are two American tapirs. We next come to a really
imposing and lofty bird-of-prey aviary of very large proportions,
and then to the bear castle, with ivy running all over it. In a
neighbouring tank are some green cormorants, perched on little rocks.
Close by is a large enclosure for storks, cranes, stilts, gulls,
herons, and flamingoes.
The herons here, contrary to their usual habit, build their nests on
the ground and rear young ones every year. These birds are allowed full
liberty, for their wings are never cut, but they are, in spite of this,
very punctual to meals. One went away with the winter migration, but
came back at supper-time the following spring. Here is to be seen the
Goliath heron (_Ardea goliath_), rarely seen in confinement.
[Illustration: CAMEL AND LLAMA PENS, FRANKFORT-ON-MAIN.]
We now come to the antelope house, which contains quite a large herd of
black buck. I counted ten of these animals in one enclosure, including
two young ones. There is an _Oryx leucoryx_, an _Oryx beisa_, a number
of water-bucks, nylgai, and some brindled gnus, which have bred here
several times. There is an anoa from the Celebes, born in the Garden,
and a half-grown giraffe, for which the sum of 16,000 marks had
to be paid when it was about two years old. It is a specimen of the
Southern form; ‘South’ Africa gives one a wrong impression as to
its habitat. There are no giraffes now alive in ‘South’ Africa. The
Kalihari Desert is the most southern limit of the giraffe in Africa
to-day.
We now reach the deer sheds, containing wapiti, roe (many albinos),
red, fallow, rein, axis, sika from Japan, and deer from the Moluccas.
There are the inevitable herd of American bison, a fine collection of
llamas and alpacas, some camels, yaks, buffaloes, zebus, asses, and
Burchell’s zebras, an ant-eater near some very old elms, some giant
tortoises from the Galapagos, and the ever-present Shetland ponies.
The magnificent concert-house, which has been added to of late and
redecorated, contains the largest rooms in the city of Frankfort. Here
are given two concerts daily by the Garden’s own band of thirty-five
performers. In the summer two bands play. Ten special symphony concerts
are given each year.
In September, 1901, three giraffes, forty ostriches, seven lions, five
jaguars, black and ordinary leopards were exhibited, but the above have
now nearly all been sold.
In 1892 the following animals were bred in the Garden: gnu, nylgai,
water-buck, jaguar, wolves, guanacos, etc.
Every May or June the Garden exhibits for some days its collection
of _Lepidoptera_, one of the richest butterfly collections on the
Continent, containing, as it does, about 25,000 specimens, including
1,500 _Hesperides_ and more than 2,000 _Geometræ_.
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.
The view from the restaurant terrace of the lake and tower, surrounded
by trees, is one of the most striking I can remember.
* * * * *
I visited other Zoological Gardens in Germany besides those described
above. There is one at Augsberg, one at Karlsruhe, one at Mulhausen,
and one at Nymphenburg; but as there is nothing very remarkable about
them, and one or two possess no carnivorous animals, they may well be
passed over in a work which is already far too long.