THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS
If you go to the Zoological Gardens you ought to be a good walker and
not easily tired. The animals are in cages, but they are not all close
together; there are long stretches of green grass and trees and
beautiful flower-beds between, and to go over the Zoo thoroughly takes a
very long time. But it is not likely that any of you would want to know
it thoroughly; the things you want most to look at are not the curious
rare small animals or different sorts of birds, but the largest and
best-known animals, such as the lions and tigers, the bears, elephants,
and giraffes. Of all these the lions are the most interesting.
If we arrive at the Zoo a little before four o'clock in the afternoon we
ought to go straight to the lion-house, for four o'clock is the lions'
dinner-time. The house is light and warm, and the cages are all down one
side in a row. Behind them are the railed-in gardens belonging to the
beasts; but sometimes the doors between are shut, and the lions are not
allowed to walk in their gardens. On fine sunny days, however, we can
see them there outside, licking their great lips and rolling about
lazily on the warm ground. In the lion house about ten minutes to four
all the great animals begin to get restless; they walk up and down and
whine or howl, and as four o'clock draws near they get more and more
excited, some of them going round and round in circles, always quicker
and quicker. Though they have no watches, they know the time exactly,
which is rather wonderful, for there is nothing to tell them four
o'clock is near. This is their one meal in the day, so no wonder they
look forward to it; and when you see what they get, it doesn't seem much
for such a great big animal as a lion. Soon a rumbling sound is heard,
and a little truck laden with raw meat runs up through a little passage
between the cages, and the keeper pushes it along the front of the cages
to the end. Then the animals get frantic; the sight of the raw meat
makes them savage; they leap and howl--great howls that would make your
blood run cold if you heard them on a dark night when you were out in
the forest. The animal that goes round in circles goes so fast he
nearly tumbles on his head, and the others trot backwards and forwards,
and all is noise and confusion. The keeper undoes a bar at the bottom of
the cage, which leaves just enough room to put the meat in; then he
picks out the piece he means for that animal and thrusts it through at
the end of an iron rod. The lion or tiger pounces on it, and growling,
carries it into a corner of its den. The keeper replaces the bar, and
goes on to the next one, and so on until all are fed. Then a deep
silence follows; there is only a licking of great lips, a sort of
purring of content, and a sound of bones being crunched or scraped, and
we can look at the animals more easily than when they are running about.
Here in front is a magnificent lion, with a great tawny mane; his broad
nose is wrinkled as he crunches his bone. He has torn all the meat off
it almost at once, and his rough tongue has licked it clean until it is
quite polished; but he still goes on chewing it with those huge white
teeth as long as your finger--teeth that would crunch through your arm
in a moment. This old fellow is usually good-tempered for a lion, but
when feeding-time comes his wife Mrs. Lioness has to go into the back
den shut off by a little door to eat her dinner alone, or they would
fight. Suddenly Mr. Lion raises his head and looks round grandly, as if
he were ashamed of all those people who come to stare at him. He was a
king in his own country, and now, alas! he is only a captive king.
Perhaps he sees a woman carrying a little baby in her arms, and he fixes
his eyes on that baby until it is out of sight. What a delicious morsel
it would make for dessert! But he knows he cannot get through his bars;
he learnt that long ago when he was first brought here. He was not born
in the Zoo--oh no; he had been caught when he was full grown. He
remembers quite well the wild, free life, where, if he were not sure of
a dinner every day, at least every now and then he got more than he
could eat. While he licks his bone he is in a quiet mood, and if you
listened very hard you might hear him talking.
'Yes,' he says (Lick, lick), 'that bone was very good, but there wasn't
enough on it, and now I'm not going to get any more until to-morrow. Oh,
those stupid humans, how they do stare! Have they never seen a gentleman
eat his dinner before? They would open those silly round eyes a bit
wider if these bars were not between us. I wish they could have seen me
that day we caught the zebra. It was grand that!' (Lick, lick.) 'I had
hunted all one night without getting even the whisk of a tail; and also
during the day in the glaring, hot African sun, when I wanted to go to
sleep; and I was very hungry. We, I and my wife, lay down in the shade a
little while towards evening before we parted to see what we could pick
up. There were the little ones to be considered, for when they had come
running up and seen me with nothing, all their little tails dropped
down, and you never saw such a set of little cats in your life. I told
them I would bring them something next time for certain; and so I set
off alone, as I said before, in the evening.
'The sun had burnt up all the grass, which was a kind of dusty brick-red
colour; but that's not a bad thing for a lion, because he doesn't show
against it. It was a very wide open plain where I was, with just a few
shrubs and odd bits of tree for shelter. Well, I crouched down under one
of these, trying to make myself as small as I could, and praying that
the still air wouldn't send the smell of me over the plain to warn all
those silly creatures I wanted to catch.
'Presently I smelt zebra. Now, good tender zebra makes a dish fit for a
king, but the brute can trot at such a rate that I knew I shouldn't have
a chance to catch him running. I must hide and leap out. The smell got
stronger and stronger, and then I saw them half a mile off, a whole
herd, galloping just as straight as they could come towards my
hiding-place. I grew hot and cold then, I can tell you, and my tail
quivered so I was afraid they would see it. I was in fine condition, and
I reckoned that at the distance they would pass I could just by a very
long spring land on the back of the leader. But then they might at any
moment scent me, and I should be done for; up with their heels, and
nothing more of supper should I see but a cloud of dust. So I waited,
and they came right on. I shook with excitement. Then, just at the right
moment, I gathered myself up, and with a great spring I cleared the
distance and landed clean on the back of the leader. That was a surprise
for him, I can tell you. He went down as if he had been shot, and the
others, with snorts of terror, flew away like the wind. One stroke of my
paw killed him, and then I stood up over his striped and quivering body
and roared as loud as I could for my wife and little ones. They weren't
far off, and they came as fast as they could; and to see those little
beggars dancing about that zebra was a sight, almost as good a feeling
it gave me as when I landed on that zebra's back. It had been a record
jump that. We measured it afterwards in strides, and my wife said she
was proud of me, and she always knew I could jump better than any other
lion in South Africa.
'Well, those little beggars jumped on that zebra, and bit at him; but
the skin was too tough for their little teeth, bless them! It was the
funniest sight. But when the old woman and I started in, we did more
than that, I can tell you; we tore off great chunks of him, and the
little ones ate what they could. They got in the way, too, and we had to
give them a slap now and then to keep them in order; and they snarled
and swore at each other until their mother had to quiet them. When we
had done we felt as if we could hardly walk, and we just wanted to get
home as fast as we could and do no more that night. We had pretty well
finished up that zebra before we walked off, and the vultures came
hopping round to clean up what we had left. I was feeling all right
then, and we lay down comfortable and satisfied. Oh dear! I had quite
forgotten where I was; and now I wake up to find myself in this dull
place, where there is no hunting and no fun, where we are caged up in
horrid bars.'
Just as the lion finished speaking, Mrs. Lioness came out from the
inner den. She was not nearly so handsome as her husband, and he thought
her not nearly so handsome as his first wife, who had hunted with him in
South Africa; still, she was company, and that was something.
We have stayed a long time at this lions' cage, and we must pass over
all the rest of the lions--some of them born in captivity, who have
never known the delight of a wild, free life--and go on to the great
striped Bengal tiger, with his magnificent head and handsome face. There
is not the same tremendous strength in his appearance as in the lion's,
but there is something almost more terrible in his long, gliding body
and catlike movements, more ferocious altogether. In the wild state the
lion prefers to prey upon animals, and will not turn on man unless he is
desperate. But a tiger sometimes takes to the life of a man-eater for no
reason but because he likes the taste of human flesh; and once he has
begun to eat human beings, he is a man-eater to the end of his days. He
turns man-eater sometimes, too, when he is old and his strong teeth
fail; and then he will hang about outside villages to pounce on a
soft-flesh man, who is easier to catch than a wild animal.
Tigers are very fierce; a mother tiger with her cubs will attack
anything. When the cubs are little she teaches them to hunt for
themselves, taking them out with her on expeditions and showing them how
to catch smaller animals, such as young calves or pigs, until they are
strong enough to hunt larger ones, when they leave her and begin
housekeeping on their own account. A great many tigers live in India,
and many a wretched native has ended his life by being caught by one of
them. You would think, to look at the royal tiger, with his reddish
markings and black stripes, that he could be easily seen at a great
distance, but this is not so. In the jungle where he lives the stems of
the bamboos are light, and the markings of the tiger are so like his
surroundings that you might get quite close to him and never know it. He
walks through the dense thick jungle with the loose, springy step of a
cat, and woe be to any luckless animal he sees! Sometimes he will find
an enclosure with some young bullocks in it; then he will take one, and
leave the others, for, unless he is a very young tiger, he does not kill
for the love of it, but for food. He carries off his prey, and comes
back a night or two after for a second one; and if the owner of the
bullocks does not remove them he will soon have none left.
Quite near to the lion house, on the other side, is the reptile house,
where live snakes, crocodiles, and lizards, and all sorts of curious
animals. The most interesting are the enormous snakes, called
boa-constrictors, with bodies nearly as thick as a child's, and many
yards in length. They are not in cages, but in glass houses, like glass
boxes. The glass is very thick and strong, and the snake does not dash
himself against it to get out. He would not take the trouble to do that,
for he moves slowly, and when you see him at the Zoo you would think him
very lazy. There he lies, with his oily body, covered with little
scales, hanging round the branch of a dead tree which has been put into
his house, or perhaps lying coiled up on the gravel floor in rings and
rings, so beautifully neat that you wonder how he can take the trouble
to fold himself up so nicely before he goes to sleep. He certainly would
not get crumpled if he lay anyhow, as your clothes would get crumpled if
you did not fold them up. Watch him very closely. You can see he
breathes, and perhaps he glances up and winks with one eye, or darts out
a wicked little tongue. How can a creature like that, so big and so
slow, ever get any food? Well, he can go fast enough at times, and he
does not often want a meal, because he eats so much at one time that it
lasts him for many days. He writhes his great body along the ground in
the thick woods of his native country, and lies so still that you might
tread on him without seeing him. He lives in Brazil and other parts of
South America. Perhaps a young deer comes down to drink, all unconscious
of the hideous beast lying in watch. He stoops his pretty head, then,
with a writhing movement, the boa is upon him. The deer struggles
frantically, but the great folds of the snake close ever tighter and
tighter round him with a strength that breaks his delicate bones and
squeezes the life out of him. When the animal, crushed and breathless,
ceases to struggle, the boa opens his gaping mouth, and bit by bit the
whole animal--it may be still palpitating--is forced into that awful
throat. The snake cannot tear his prey; he has no hands or feet, no
claws or hoofs. He can only swallow it whole. It would seem impossible
sometimes that he could get that mass into his comparatively narrow
throat; but his muscles are elastic. He stops half-way through his
horrid meal and lies still to rest, then another swallow and another. In
the meantime, his teeth, like little sharp saws bent backwards, covering
all the roof of his mouth as well as the jaws, are firmly fixed into
the victim, so that it cannot draw back. When the disgusting meal is
done the great snake lies helpless and swollen, and has to wait until
his food is digested before he can get about comfortably.
When he is in the Zoo he doesn't get anything so large as a deer, but
rabbits and small things that he can swallow easily, and frogs, of which
all snakes are very fond, perhaps because they are slimy and slip down
quickly. There are many other snakes beside the boa, some not so large,
but more poisonous. The boa is not poisonous. He relies on his huge
strength to kill his enemies; but other snakes, such as vipers and
rattlesnakes, are. Even when the head of a viper has been cut off it
still remains poisonous, and may cause death. The rattlesnake is so
called because it makes a funny rattle with its tail before it strikes.
It is about five feet long sometimes, and the sound of its rattle sends
terror into the heart of anyone who is near, as he knows that at any
moment the snake may dart out upon him with its hideous head aloft and
its wicked eyes gleaming. The rattlesnake is found in North America.
The reptile house has been rebuilt and is very hot and damp, to suit the
animals who live there. In the middle there is a large tank with
numbers of ugly crocodiles living in it. They are dark greeny-brown,
like a log that has been a long time in the water, and if you were
floating down the Nile, or any river where crocodiles live, in a boat,
and saw something floating that you thought a bit of old wood, it might
very likely be the back or head of a crocodile. He has a bony coat like
a suit of armour, and it would be very difficult indeed to break through
it, and he swims along, using both his strong tail and his flat feet. He
is what is called an amphibious animal, because he lives partly on land
and partly in the water. He must breathe air, but he can shut up his
nostrils by a fold of skin as we shut our eyes, and can remain under the
water without breathing for some time. His enormous jaws are like a pair
of great shears, and woe be to any animal or man who gets his leg
between them. It will be cut off as cleanly as the gardener cuts a tall
flower with his shears. The crocodile lives in water, and catches fish
and other things; he comes out at times and lies on the banks, and in
the evening, when the land animals come down to drink, he hides himself
in the water, and catches anything he can with his ugly snout. Fancy a
dainty antelope finding suddenly that his delicate nose was pinched
tightly by Mr. Crocodile's teeth, and that he was being drawn down, down
to a hideous death!
But we have stayed much too long in the reptile house, and have not even
mentioned the pretty little green frogs and the many other things to be
found there.
On the other side of the lion house, away from the reptiles, is the
sea-lions' pond. Sea-lions are not the least little bit like real lions,
but when sailors heard them roaring on the rocks far out to sea they
thought they must be lions, and so they gained the name. There are
several of them at the Zoo, huge clumsy looking creatures with big
whiskers, and a skin like india-rubber. At one end of their pond is a
mass of artificial rock with caves and terraces, and when the sea-lions
are out of the water they gallop about on this in an astonishing way,
considering that they have no legs, and only end in a fish's tail. They
lollop along on two front flippers and their strong muscular tail, and
then plunge off the rocks into the water as quick as a flash of light.
Once in the water they seem to be everywhere at once, their movements
are so fast and graceful. Diving at one end of the pond, they are up at
the other before you have had time to take breath.
The best time to see them is when they are fed, which is after the real
lions. The keeper goes into the enclosure with a basket of fish, and in
their excitement the sea-lions writhe and wind and chase each other till
the pond seems full of gigantic eels. He throws the fish one by one in
all directions, and the great beasts simply dance after them. Even after
the last fish has gone, still the happy commotion continues for several
minutes.
A great change was made in the Zoo when the Mappin terraces were built.
These were presented by a Mr. Mappin who wanted the animals to be seen
in a more natural state than is possible when they are in cages. The
great idea is that the animals are not separated from the sight-seers by
bars, but by a very deep and wide ditch, ditch isn't the right word,
fosse would be better, but fosse is not a very common word.
Across this, people can look at the bears in safety, and see them far
better than under the old conditions; while the bears themselves are in
the open air, and have a good space to roam over and a fine pond to
bathe in. They are some beautiful shaggy brown bears here, just the very
model on which Teddy bears are made; and, if you are kind to them, and
throw them bits of biscuits across the fosse, some of them will sit up
in the most engaging way and hug their hind feet, rocking themselves
backwards and forwards in their excitement about the promised dainty.
High over the bears' open places, rise rocks on which various sorts of
chamois and goats live happily. They can climb far above our heads and
look down on us, or leap from rock to rock as if they were in their
native haunts. I often wonder what they think of the bears running about
below them! Sometimes they must watch in surprise as they see the bears
chasing each other. There are one or two together in most of the big
spaces, and they go through the most absurd antics, plunging in and out
of their ponds, and eyeing one another cautiously as they stand with the
water running off their fur.
There are a great many other bears too, for whom there is not room on
the Mappin terraces. These are in the old bear-quarters, which look
rather like two rows of open fronted shops standing back to back. Here
are black bears with big yellow or white collars and very smooth coats.
They come from Malay, and are not at all like one's ordinary idea of a
bear. There are also funny little bears who go head-over-heels to make
people look at them. There is an open cage here, too, with a pond in
it. Sometimes the grizzlies live here; very fearful they look too, with
their terrible claws, as long as fingers. Or there may be a family of
young ones romping together.
Bears are to be found in nearly all parts of the world, and they are
very different from one another. Bears in their natural state would not
attack men, but when men follow them up and try to hunt them they become
very savage. There is a bear-pit at the end of the double row of cages,
and if we go up on the top and look down we shall see the two brown
bears who climb up a pole to get buns.
Now we will go back again to visit the Polar bears who live in a
spacious place at the end of the Mappin terraces, and deserve a little
more attention than the rest because they are so very different in their
appearance and habits.
One day I caught Mr. Polar Bear in a good humour, so that he was
actually willing to talk to me. 'It's not so bad here sometimes,' said
he. 'The keeper does give us plenty of fish. It isn't so good as seal,
though. That's what I like--seal rich and juicy, and almost alive. But
it doesn't matter much, after all, for I have no appetite, it's so hot,
always hot; my great thick coat makes me feel abominably warm. The only
comfortable place is the bath, and that's lukewarm. Cold, do you call
it? Oh, you don't know what cold is--real keen, cutting cold, which
makes one feel young again and ready for anything. Oh for those long
blue Arctic nights, when the sun never rises for days together, and the
stars flash like diamonds, and the aurora shoots over the gleaming
sky!--nights when everything is still, held in the grip of a frost
greater than you can imagine; where for miles and miles there is only
the glittering ice reflecting the flashing sky and the deep blue shadows
under hillocks of frozen snow. Then it's worth while to live. Shall I
ever see it again? My wife used to say before she died that she didn't
know what was the matter with me, I had grown so cross; I only growled
at her. But I knew what was the matter with me. I can't breathe here,
it's all so stuffy and dull--no excitement. You've never caught a seal
in your life? Then you don't know what excitement is. You just try, and
then come and tell me if it isn't the best sport in the world. These
seals--silly things!--make holes in the ice, and come up to breathe now
and then; and these holes are regular traps. Right down below the
ice-cold water lies fathoms deep, still and dark, and we cannot get the
silly things there; but here in the ice is a nice little round hole. I
have been walking with great long silent strides over the beautiful
frosty snow, and I come on one of these, and lie down beside it, hiding
myself. I have to be very still; the slightest movement would send Mr.
Seal far away. When I have waited there hour after hour, perhaps I hear
a faint sound in the water, a little ripple, so faint that anyone not
used to it would never notice it; and then I feel thrills all over me.
By-and-by the silly round head of the seal peers out, all glistening
with the wet. I am lying behind a hummock of snow--we call them hummocks
there--and he looks all round, and finally drags himself up on to the
ice; then with a bound I am on him. But there is only time for one
try--he is as quick as lightning, I can assure you--and if I miss him,
he's into that hole and down, down, down for ever, and there's my supper
gone too. But if I get him, what a juicy feast, what masses of soft
flesh and oily fat, what tearing and rending! Ah, the taste of seal!'
He licked his lips, was silent suddenly; then, with a great growl,
turned away. He had remembered where he was, poor fellow, and that the
joys of seal-hunting would never be his any more!