ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN, MOSCOW: DIRECTORS, MESSRS. BAUMWALDT AND HOLTZ
How nice it was to get away from the cold wet north and see the sun
again at Moscow! There was scarcely a cloud in the sky on the occasion
of my first visit to the Zoological Garden at Moscow.
After entering, on payment of thirty-two kopecks, one is confronted
by a large boating lake, with cages of small birds and animals on the
right bank. But, as usual, let us keep to the left, and, passing some
vertebræ and jaw-bones of a gigantic whale, the first house that will
be encountered is the lion house, containing, amongst other things,
a bay lynx of America (_Felis ruta_), and a serval (ever snarling),
a magnificent pair of large snow leopards from Thibet, and a common
leopard with three tiny babies. In another cage together are two
hyænas, one dog, one wolf, and one bear. The next house contains bears,
and there is a monkey house close by containing, amongst other things,
a flying fox. In a paddock in the Garden, next to a Thibetan kiang,
or wild ass, is a specimen of the newly discovered Prejevalsky’s wild
horse. This animal came out of the herd imported by Carl Hagenbeck, and
from the same herd came the specimens of the curious yellow-coloured
horse now to be seen in our London Garden. Carl Hagenbeck informed
me that these animals were caught in three different districts south
of the Mongolian town of Kobdo, near the Altai Mountains. The horses
travelled twenty days to Kobdo, and ninety-five days from Kobdo to the
Siberian Railway, so that by the time they reached Europe they must
have had about enough travelling. The foals are caught with slings on
long sticks by the Mongols, a number of whom gallop down upon a large
herd at a given signal. When caught they are fed by Mongol mares, which
act as their foster-mothers.
[Illustration: MOOSE YARD, MOSCOW.]
There were signs of great activity going on in this Garden, houses
of various sorts being in course of construction in every direction,
including a good new set of bear cages for the fine collection of
these animals, which have now to be housed separately in various parts
of the Garden. Passing a moose yard, with a North American Indian
wooden shed, we mount up to a comparatively new house on a bank, and
find within two Indian tusker elephants, one of which is the largest
Indian elephant in Europe. It is very old, and there is a great deal
of white about the head and trunk, the latter being very short in
comparison with the immense body. Ten years ago it grew very savage,
and has since then killed two men.
In this Garden are to be seen specimens of the Russian bison (_Bos
bonassus_); a herd, now reduced to 500, is protected by the Czar in
Lithuania, Russia. When I asked an official if it was possible to get
permission to shoot one, he said it would be cheaper to kill a man. ‘It
would cost you,’ he added, ‘three years’ hard labour, with a fine of
800 roubles to kill a bison; whereas, if you kill a man, it costs you
only three years in Siberia, without any fine whatever.’
There were the usual concert-houses and restaurants. The Garden
contains some quaintly built houses, and there are plenty of
duck-ponds, trees, and grass to help to make it pretty.
As I had to await permission from the police (I was not ‘wanted’) to
leave Russia, I was enabled to spend a second day in this curious
and out-of-the-corner Garden. Here could be seen people out of every
country in Europe, mixed up with natives of China, Thibet, Mongolia,
Russian Turkestan, Russian Siberia, and other Asiatic races. I chanced
upon the younger son of Herr Carl Hagenbeck, the great animal importer
of Hamburg, who had just arrived with some American racoons, some
Shetland ponies, and other animals. I was delighted to meet someone who
could speak English, and we lunched together in the Garden. Hagenbeck
told me he was awaiting from Siberia a number of roe-deer, ibex, and
other animals. He said that a gorilla, one of the rarest animals in
captivity, and some chimpanzees were on their way to Hamburg from West
Africa.
[Illustration: TOWER, MOSCOW.]
A fine band plays in the Garden in the afternoon, and altogether the
place is quite worth a visit.