The zoological gardens of Europe, their history and chief features

by C. V. A. Peel

CHAPTER XIII

ZOOLOGISCHER GARTEN, COLOGNE: PRESENT DIRECTOR, DR. WÜNDERLICH

In 1857 Dr. Garthe conceived the idea of forming a Zoological Garden, and gave expression to this idea in the Cologne newspaper of August 13 in that year. People of every class appreciated his idea, and took shares in a company which was formed three years afterwards. This was the last work of this great savant. A bust of him by Werres is now placed at the end of the main walk in the Garden.

The first Director of the Garden, Dr. H. Bodinus aus Greifswald, was appointed on April 24, 1859.

On September 17, 1859, plans of the Garden were submitted by Director Strauss, and the work progressed so rapidly that the Garden was opened to the public on July 22, 1860. Different houses and ponds were added from time to time, until, in 1882, the Garden reached its present extent.

The institution quickly won friends and sympathizers in all parts of the world. In 1869 Dr. Bodinus, the Director, left in order to undertake the direction of the Berlin Zoological Garden, and he was succeeded by Nicholas Funk, who had been Director of the Brussels Zoological Garden. During his sixteen years’ term of office he did much for the pictorial beauty of the Garden.

Heck in 1886 thoroughly replenished the stock of animals before leaving for Berlin. In 1888 he was replaced by Dr. Wünderlich, who is the Director of the Garden to-day.

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Of late years the approaches to the Garden and the Garden itself have improved enormously. The old-fashioned and ugly buildings were all removed by a big fire, and a splendid new aviary and a new ostrich house have taken their places. The ostrich house is built in the shape of a mosque with numerous minarets. The birds are now to be seen all the year round, which was not possible in the old house. There is plenty of light and ventilation through a glass roof, whilst two stoves supply heat. Within this house, besides ostriches, are to be found rheas, emus, pouch-bearing animals, rodents and parrots, and the rarest bird in it is the Australian wingless kiwi. This tiresome bird goes to sleep all day, and is never to be seen when wanted; but when the gates are shut and the visitors have all departed, out comes the kiwi.

The old ostrich pens have disappeared, and in their place is a children’s playground, which is quite deserted and useless, as all the children naturally go to see their cousins in the monkey house.

The kangaroos’ quarters have changed for the worse, as the animals formerly lived in big outside pens; now, owing to the children’s playground, they are confined in much narrower limits, and have only small outside pens, without enough room to move about. An armadillo is also to be seen in this house.

On leaving the ostrich house, the camels’ and llamas’ enclosure is next encountered. The houses are prettily painted in bright colours. The collection of llamas is very complete. We pass on to the old aviary containing the pheasants; a large new pheasantry, on the same plan as that of the one in the Zoological Gardens at Hanover, is now under consideration. Here are also to be found specimens of Amherst’s pheasant and the vulturine guinea-fowl from North-East Africa.

Leaving the restaurant on your left, you pass through a young chestnut avenue and come to the antelope and deer houses, standing in a long row. The small deer and the hardier kinds of antelope are found here. Water-buck, nylgai, and two white-tailed gnus are to be seen. Père David’s deer is one of the occupants of the deer sheds. Other deer found are the Virginian deer, axis deer, sika from Japan, and a very grotesque-looking deer from China—Reeves’ muntjac (Cervulus Reevesi). On the other side of these sheds is the large-deer enclosure, with pretty houses attached. Here are found wapiti from America, and the Altai, one with a curious malformation of horn. At the end of the deer enclosure is the old bear pit, with two fine big pens. This was a present from the late architect, Koch. There is also a cage and tank containing two polar bears; a grizzly bear in the next cage, with rockery and flowing water; a pair of South American rare spectacled bears (U. ornatus), Malay bear, Thibet bear, Japan bear, an Indian and a Western Asian. Opposite to the bear pit is the flamingo pond, in one of the prettiest situations in the Garden. Green banks, groups of trees, storks, cranes and flamingoes make a lovely picture. From the terrace of the restaurant a very picturesque view of the Garden is to be had. On the left hand of the pond are a sheep and goat rockery, and a building containing Barbary sheep, thar, onahura, and a herd of moufflon—that extremely beautiful black, brown, and white wild goat. The latter have frequently bred in the Garden. In Corsica and Sardinia, for want of game laws, they are fast dying out. There is a new fox and jackal house, brick-built in the Gothic style, and having on one side a massive tower. The cages are roomy, the floors cemented, and the sanitary arrangements good. Besides the German wolf are to be found the grey wolf and the black wolf of North America, also several jackals, foxes, and fennecs, including the Arctic and common foxes, and C. Hagenbecki from Somaliland. Two striped hyænas and one spotted hyæna are housed in front of the bear pits.

The monkey house is also found in front of the bear pit. This is the most attractive and popular house in the Garden. A young orang-outang, however, has monopolized most attention in the new aviary. The baboons, macaques, etc., will soon be placed in a new house, which will have more light from above, and there will be out-of-door cages. The capuchin seems to live out of doors all the year round. In the monkey house are different sorts of lemurs, white rats and mice, and the hamsters, which live in glass cases. One of the baboons has been for years in the Garden; he has learnt to dance, and will turn round as often as he is told.

We leave the monkey house, built in pleasing Indian style, and come to the rodents’ grottoes and squirrel house. Here are porcupines and hystrices. The small rodents of the squirrel family live with the marmots or mountain-rats, and are to be seen close to the grottoes. This place is built of stone and iron to resist the sharp teeth of these gnawing animals.

The carpincho (Hydrochærus capybara) is in an enclosure close by behind the monkey house. This animal is the largest of the rodents, being 4 feet long and weighing 98 pounds. Here also is a very fine collection of geese.

Passing the pretty little house of the Director, we come to the splendid and imposing new aviary; here are all kinds of foreign birds, such as paroquets, etc. The four corners are marked by towers. There are outside cages, and the house is well built and free from draughts. On the south-west side of the house is a large open cage with a spring of water in it, containing wading birds, the ibises, and shore birds, such as oyster-catchers and plovers. Ladders lead up to the roosting-boxes. Each outside cage is provided with a good bath. All the birds are well labelled on the cages, and there are pictures of several of them.

STORKS.
BATELEUR EAGLE.
COCKATOO.
STORK NESTING ON THE GROUND.
(Photo by Ottomar Anschütz, Berlin.)
CRANES.

Above the great aviary is a large glass roof with ventilators. The Cologne aviary surpasses that of Berlin. The cages get their light from the front as well as from above; by this means you see the proper colours of the birds, and not merely their silhouettes. There are plenty of trees and plants for the enjoyment of the birds as well as for the pleasure of the visitors. These plants help to improve the air.

Passing the great fish-pond, which in summer is ornamented with swans and in winter is very popular for skating, we come to the piggery, a pretty building in blue-gray basalt covered with natural red tiles. Each pig has a roomy eating and drinking trough, and is kept clean and free from smell. The floors are on a slant, and the drainage is excellent. Here are wart-hogs, some European wild boars (huge animals), small peccaries, and the brilliantly-coloured red river-hog. Next door are the birds of prey. Their building contains fifteen large flying cages, the one in the middle being the largest. At both ends of the rows of cages are twenty smaller cages. The great flying cages contain trees and a brook of flowing water. There are huts for nests built into the walls. The small cages are built of stone with bars in the front; shrubs are put into each.

There are two sorts of vultures, thirty species of hawks, and ten of owls.

A bridge of stone close to the eagle rocks connects the old part of the Garden with that of the new. The street below has not been destroyed, doubtless owing to its historic character. From the bridge there is a beautiful view over the Mühlheim heath of the town beyond. Five-sixths of the space of the new part of the Garden is taken up by a large lawn covered with shrubs. At the end of this we come to the sea-lion grotto; the Garden guide calls it the chef-d’œuvre of the Garden. From a large rockwork overgrown with moss and plants the water flows into a basin 15 yards long and 8 yards wide. At the back of the rock are huts for the seals.

Retracing our steps, we come to the buffalo houses, three pretty, massive wood-block houses. In one are to be found no less than five American bisons; in the others are the Indian bison, the yak, the Cape buffalo, the gaur, the banting from Java, and the gayal.

Going back over the bridge, we see to the right, rather hidden by bushes, a road leading to the antelope and elephant house, fitted with large outside pens with water-tanks. Here is to be seen a hippopotamus. Opposite the tank is a beaver enclosure; not far from the beaver house is the otter tank, with perpetually flowing water. The so-called elephant house is a plaster building in the Moorish style, with little towers and minarets. Going through folding-doors, we step into a wide hall. Near the door are the equidæ. The idea of uniting the antelopes and elephants is for the sake of economy. The pens are separated from each other by rolling doors. The animals are fed from the front. There are one African and two Indian elephants. The Indian female elephant has been in the Garden since 1872 and is now thirty-two years old; the African elephant, a young male, is eight years old—Mangasia he is called, after the famous Abyssinian Ras. The old hippo, which was born in Antwerp, is now dead, and has been replaced by a baby one. This little fellow tumbles about in his tank in a most amusing manner.

Tapirs, Indian and American, are found in this house. Amongst the ruminants are the anoa, an addax, a magnificent sable, Oryx beisa, and three Oryx leucoryx (both the latter have bred here), the gnu, some Arabian gazelles, and a dwarf antelope with a young one, the latter in a special glass cage with bars on the top. This cage stands on a table. In the cages are sleeping compartments. In the centre of the room was a glass case containing four baby kangaroos, and a pretty sight it was to see them playing with each other. There are a pair of Somaliland wild asses, which have bred here, and also Burchell’s and Chapman’s zebras.

The small-cats’ house is not a beautiful edifice; the cages are very narrow and badly lighted. Here are to be seen the serval, the caracul, leopard, zorilla, ichneumon, etc.; the local animals have the worst cages in the Garden.

Close to the small-cats’ house is the large-cats’ house, an unpretentious building, which has ten extensive semicircular cages. The outside cages are roofed over and have cement floors; inside, the cages are floored with wood. The four biggest cages have grottoes at the back, also wooden floors. The grottoes, however, are difficult to clean. The floors, which slope to the front for drainage, can be taken out. Bars can be put in to divide one cage into two if necessary. Tree-trunks are put inside. When the Rhine overflowed in 1882 and 1884, the cats saved themselves from being drowned by climbing up these tree-trunks. Two marks on the eagle aviary show the height of the water on those occasions. Many ducks and swans swam away and were killed by so-called sportsmen. The Garden was turned into a Rhenish Venice, and the feeding was carried on in boats. In the house are three lions, and three young born in the Garden, leopards, cheetahs, puma, and black leopard, a pair of hunting leopards, a jaguar, a pair of Bengal tigers, and a pair of Siberian tigers (the female born in Berlin). These animals live day and night in the open air. The lions in winter are often seen lying in the snow, perfectly contented.

Leaving the square with shady trees we come to the great aviary. The flying cages are small in comparison with those of the Berlin aviary; the ironwork is so complicated up above that the birds cannot fly about at the top for fear of damaging themselves. They have only a poor bath and a few mangy-looking trees. The birds mostly perch on iron bars and parts of the wall at the back. They are too crowded: doves, seagulls, pheasants, herons, and starlings jostle each other. It is not quiet enough for them to breed well. It was an amusing sight to see the gulls fed; they made such a noise, and fought so hard for the tit-bits of meat, bread, and green food thrown to them. Close by the great aviary are the stilts and a primitive wooden winter house containing peacocks, etc. At the back of the peacock house are the storks, one of the finest collections in Germany. There are thirteen different species. In summer they inhabit the green banks of the flamingo pond.

Close to the place where the children do not play there are a quantity of old houses for poultry, pigeons, etc. There are five ponds: one a large skating-pond, in summer frequented by swans; a second the flamingo pond mentioned above. Three other ponds are the Island and Temple ponds, called after a little clock-temple close by, and the pond which unites them. These stretch across the Garden from the Director’s house to the lion house. They simply swarm with ducks of every description, pelicans, eight species of swans, and twenty-six species of geese. The pelicans are a very fine collection, and contain eight species in all.

PELICANS, COLOGNE.

Near the lion house is a machine house producing electricity for the restaurant and pumping water for ponds. Before the machine house is a pretty grotto with a waterfall which leads by a brook into the ponds.