THE LLAMA HOUSE, No. 38.
Collection of Cameloids was presented by Mr. Robert S. Brewster.
The arid regions of South America are inhabited by four species of long-necked, long-haired, soft-footed animals, so closely related to the camels of the Old World that they are called cameloids. There are four species. The llama and alpaca are in a state of domestication, and are supposed to have been derived from the wild guanaco and vicunia. All of them might almost be described as small-sized, humpless camels; and their tempers and mental traits are as odd as their forms.
The ordinary cameloid is a quiet and inoffensive creature; but the exception is a rogue of rogues. It will bite with the persistence of a bull-dog, and with its massive, chisel-like lower incisors inflicts ugly wounds. At times a llama or vicunia becomes actually insane, and seeks to destroy every living creature within its reach. Regardless of punishment, such creatures attack their keepers and their herd-mates, spit upon visitors, and rage up and down their corrals in most absurd fashion. Occasionally such individuals require to be completely isolated.
The Llama, (Lama glama), is the largest and strongest member of the group. Its body is covered with a thick mass of long, wavy hair of fine texture, which may be either brown, white, white and brown, or almost black. The head and legs are short-haired like those of the guanaco. From time immemorial, this animal has been used as a beast of burden, and in the Andes has played an important part in the mineral industry by carrying silver ore and bullion from the mines.
The Alpaca, (Lama pacos), is bred for its wool. It is smaller than the llama, but more abundantly haired on the legs, neck and head. Its fleece is long, and lies in stringy tufts. Usually its color is dark brown or black, but occasionally a white Alpaca is seen. A white specimen in the Zoological Park collection has blue eyes.
The Guanaco, (Lama guanacus), is one of the most interesting and valuable wild animals now found in Patagonia. Unfortunately, it is so stupid and incapable that it is easily killed. The natives of Terra del Fuego, themselves almost the lowest and most ignorant of men, slaughter Guanacos for food by surrounding groups of them and clubbing them to death.
In size the Guanaco is between the llama and vicunia, and its shoulder height is about 4 feet. Its hair is thick and woolly, of a pale reddish color, and there are naked patches on the legs. This species is found on the Andes, from Ecuador to Terra del Fuego, and appears to be most abundant in Patagonia.
The Vicunia, (Lama vicunia), is the only member of the cameloid group which is not clothed with a mass of long hair. It is the smallest member of the group, comparatively short-haired, its color is a uniform light brown, its head is small, and there are no callosities on the hind legs. The Vicunia is found from southern Ecuador, through Peru to central Bolivia.
NORTH AMERICAN DEER.
Elk, Mule Deer, White-Tail, Caribou and Moose.
The American members of the Deer Family will be found in the ranges situated on the hill west of the Wild-Fowl Pond, stretching from the Llama House northward to the Service Road.
After several years of experiments, we must admit that to all the American members of the Deer Family save the wapiti white-tailed and mule deer, the climate of New York City is decidedly inimical. This densely humid and extremely saline atmosphere is about as deadly to the black-tail, caribou and moose as it is to the Eskimo; and thus far we have found it an absolute impossibility to maintain satisfactory herds of those species in the ranges available for them. In great tracts of forests, some of them might become acclimatized; but, be that as it may, all experiments made thus far both here and in two of the great game preserves of New England, prove conclusively that black-tail deer, mule deer, caribou, moose, and also prong-horned antelope, are among the most difficult of all ruminants to acclimatize anywhere in the United States eastward of the great plains.
Although the Zoological Society will continue its experiments with some of these preserve species, and will always strive to exhibit some of them, our original hopes regarding them have been abandoned. We are certain that the difficulty lies not in the food, but in climate conditions, that are beyond our control, and especially our very salty atmosphere.
The American Elk, or Wapiti, (Cervus canadensis.)—Of all the numerous members of the Deer Family, this animal is second in size to the moose only; and in the autumn, when its pelage is bright and luxuriant, its sides well rounded, its massive antlers clean and held conspicuously aloft, the elk may justly be called the king of the Cervidae. It is well that in the Yellowstone Park we have an unfailing supply of Elk, which bids fair to perpetuate this handsome species for another century.
Our Elk Range might well stand for a mountain park, in which is set a natural lakelet of real value. In October, when the splendid groves of beech, oak, and maple along the eastern ridge put on all the glorious tints of autumn, and the big thicket of sumacs, ash, and haw on the northern hill fairly blaze with scarlet—then are the elk also at their best. There is no finer picture in animate nature than a herd of elk in October, with such a setting of greensward, tree-trunk, and foliage.
AMERICAN ELK.
EUROPEAN RED DEER.
The maximum shoulder height of the Elk is 5 feet 4 inches, or thereabouts, and the heaviest weight noted thus far is 927 pounds.
The calves are born from May to July, and are spotted during the first six months. During the first year the antlers are merely two straight spikes, called “dag antlers.” As in all members of the Deer Family, the antlers are shed every year—which to many persons is almost beyond belief. Any person who visits a zoological garden in midsummer will see that the old antlers have dropped off bodily, just below the burr, and that new antlers, covered with hair, soft, full of blood, and with club-like “points,” have sprung up like mushrooms in place of the old ones. In supplying the great drain on the system necessary to support this remarkable growth, the Elk grows thin, and the fear of hurting his tender young antlers makes him quite timid and inoffensive. He is no longer the tyrant of the herd, and a constant menace to his keepers.
At this point it is not amiss to call attention to the differences between horns and antlers.
A horn is a hollow sheath, growing over a bony core, and except in the case of the prong-horned antelope, is never shed. Horns are worn by both sexes of all bison, buffaloes, cattle, antelope, sheep, and goats.
An antler is of solid bone throughout, growing from the skull; it is shed every year close to the skull, and quickly renewed. Usually antlers have several branches. They are worn by nearly all male members of the Deer Family—moose, elk, caribou, deer, etc., and also by the female caribou. The prongs on an antler are no index of the wearer’s age. Some of the finest and most massive elk antlers have only twelve or fourteen points. During August and September the hairy covering, or “velvet,” of new antlers is rubbed off against trees and bushes. This period is quickly followed by the mating season, during which the neck of the bull becomes unusually large, and often the animal becomes dangerous.
Although the Elk is essentially a timber-loving animal, it also wandered far into the plains bordering the Rocky Mountains on the east—until driven from them by man. The ideal home of this animal is the timbered foothills of our western mountains, up to 8,000 feet. Although once found from Virginia and New York to Oregon, and from northern Manitoba to the Gulf of Mexico, it is now numerous only in and adjacent to the Yellowstone Park, in central Colorado, where it is well protected, and in western Manitoba. The number of Elk in the National Park is variously estimated at from 10,000 head to a much larger number.
In a wild state, the Elk feeds on grasses, weeds, and the leaves and twigs of various trees and shrubs. Of all American deer, it is the most easy to acclimate and breed in captivity. Large herds are now being maintained and bred in numerous private game preserves in New Hampshire, New York, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and elsewhere. About 200 head have been released in the Adirondacks.
The Mule Deer, (Odocoileus hemionus.)—This fine animal is universally known throughout the Rocky Mountain region, which constitutes its home, as the “Black-Tailed Deer.” Because of its very large ears, and the absence of a black tail, it is known to naturalists as the Mule Deer. Inasmuch as its tail is not black, the above more common name properly applies to Odocoileus columbianus, the true black-tailed deer of the Pacific coast. In Manitoba this animal is called the “Jumping Deer,” because when running at a gallop, it makes a series of stiff-legged jumps, or “bucks,” of great length.
The weight of full-grown bucks ranges from 250 to 300 pounds, and specimens have been known to reach 325 pounds. The antlers of the Mule Deer are larger and handsomer than those of the white-tailed deer, and are much better poised on the head. Instead of dropping forward, they partake more of the set of an elk’s antlers, and many a “tenderfoot” hunter has mistaken a heavily-antlered Mule Deer for an elk. The antlers of a Mule Deer are easily distinguished from those of the white-tailed species by the two Y-shaped prongs on each antler. It will be remembered that instead of these, the white-tailed deer antler bears three straight, perpendicular spikes.
The Mule Deer makes its home in rugged ravines and bad lands so common along the creeks and rivers of the Rocky Mountain region, extending well eastward into the plains. Of late years it has been driven out of the most accessible of its former haunts, and forced to take shelter in the rugged fastnesses of the foothills and mountains. West of the Rocky Mountains it was formerly found along the whole Pacific slope, from Cape St. Lucas to British Columbia, although in northern California it is almost replaced by the Columbian Black-Tail, (O. columbianus).
DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANTLERS OF A MALE DEER.
These pictures show the stages of growth of the antlers from the time the old ones are dropped, to the full development. Number 1 shows the bull with the one antler gone—picture made early in March. Number 6 shows the full grown antlers, with the velvet hanging in strips. Number 6 was made August 24 of the same year as Number 1. This remarkable antler development takes place every year in the life of all male deer.
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The White-Tailed Deer, (Odocoileus virginianus), is the species most widely known throughout the United States, partly by reason of the fact that it was the first species with which the early settlers of America became acquainted, partly because of its wide distribution, and also its persistence in holding its own. In various localities this animal is known under various names, such as “White-Tailed Deer,” “Flag-Tailed Deer,” and “Fan-Tailed Deer.” Although not at all in need of it, quite recently it has received still another name—American Deer. The small deer of Florida, and also of New Mexico and the Southwest, have been described as separate forms; and if size is to be accepted as a factor in the differentiation of species, the diminutive proportions of the proposed southern species are quite sufficient to establish their separate identity.
The White-Tailed deer of Virginia and the northern United States is a fine animal—large, strong-limbed, heavily-antlered, and hardy. Between it and the deer of Florida the difference is as great as that between a setter dog and a mastiff. Thanks to the fact that this species is a born skulker and lives only in thick brush and timber, it still holds its own throughout the forest regions of the South generally, Pennsylvania, the Adirondacks, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana, and Colorado. In the West it is often found inhabiting brushy ravines and river bottoms.
This species breeds readily in confinement, and when protected in any large tract of brush or timber, increases rapidly. During the months of September, October, and November, the bucks are dangerous and untrustworthy. The peculiar formation of the antlers—three strong, spear-like points thrust straight upward from the beam—makes them dangerous weapons; and when an ill-tempered buck lowers his chin and drives straight forward with eight sharp spears of solid bone, and nearly three hundred pounds of weight to back them, he may well be considered a dangerous animal. He is to be feared less than the elk only because he is smaller.
The Woodland Caribou, (Rangifer caribou).—The first hoofed animal to arrive at the Zoological Park was a young female of this species, which was procured in Champlain County, Canada, and forwarded to the Society by one of our members, Mr. George S. Huntington. These animals, when present in the Park, will be kept in a small enclosure, because a large range containing an abundance of green grass is fatal to them.
The wild range of the Woodland Caribou extends from Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Maine, with many wide gaps, to the head waters of the Yukon River, in southern Alaska. The following localities are worthy of special mention: northern Quebec and Ontario; James Bay; the northern end of Lake Winnipeg (occasionally); Lake of Woods, Minnesota; Oregon near Mount Hood; northern Idaho; northwestern Montana, and the mountains of British Columbia.
Quite recently, three new species of caribou have been added to our fauna, one from the Alaskan Peninsula (Rangifer granti), one from the Kenai Peninsula (Rangifer stonei), and one from the Cassiar Mountains (Rangifer osborni).
The Woodland Caribou attains nearly twice the bodily bulk of its more northern congener, the Barren-Ground caribou. In a state of nature it lives on browse, reindeer moss, tree moss, and lichens, and it loves ice-covered lakes and ponds as much as any boy. Its loose-jointed and wide spreading hoofs and enormously developed “dew-claws” have been specially designed by Nature to enable this animal to run freely, as if on snow-shoes, over snow or bogs, which to any small-hoofed deer would be quite impassable.
The female Woodland Caribou is provided with small antlers, which, like those of the male, are shed and renewed annually.
In the absence of caribou in the Park, visitors are advised to look for specimens of the Lapland Reindeer, (Rangifer tarandus), for we shall endeavor to keep this genus represented.