CHAPTER XXVII
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.
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.
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.