The Antelope House is 142 feet long by 78 feet in extreme width. In architectural style it conforms with the other large animal buildings of the Park. Both for visitors and for its animals, it is roomy and well lighted, and in every way fitted to house and display a large and valuable collection of tropical hoofed animals. It contains 24 interior compartments, directly connected with 23 open-air yards for use in mild weather. This building was completed and occupied on October 17, 1903, and with all its surrounding improvements has cost about $80,000.
As the visitor will observe from the following enumeration of species, our collection of large and rare African and Asiatic antelopes is very rich. Unfortunately, until the completion of the Zebra House releases the apartments now occupied by the equines, a number of species which belong in the Antelope House must temporarily be quartered elsewhere.
The Nubian or Three-Horned Giraffes, (Giraffa camelopardalis), are at present the most important and interesting animals in the building. The pair came from German East Africa, are now (April, 1913) about twelve years old, and cost $5,500. The male stands 14 feet 4 inches in height, and the female 12 feet 6 inches. Both are good-tempered animals, and have been in good health ever since their arrival. Their food consists of clover hay, broken forage-biscuits, an assortment of raw vegetables carefully cut into small pieces, a small quantity of bran, and rock salt.
A study of the Giraffes reveals most interesting conditions. According to the point of view, the total number of species and subspecies may be reckoned at any number from three to six, inclusive. According to the specimens in hand, the Southern, or Two-Horned Giraffe, (Giraffa capensis), seems clearly defined from the Northern, or Three-Horned Giraffe, (G. camelopardalis). Next, the Somali Giraffe, (G. reticulata), of the Lake Rudolph region and northern British East Africa, seems fairly separable. At first the Five-Horned Giraffe, of western Uganda, seemed quite distinct, but now British naturalists hesitate about according to it rank as a separate species, because of its intergradation with the Nubian form, (camelopardalis).
Judging from all evidence now available, it seems that the Giraffes of to-day represent the midway stage of an effort to develop several species from the parent stock, the Three-Horned Giraffe, which is the species here represented. The existing forms, including all species and subspecies, intergrade and run together in a manner that is fairly bewildering; but if the Giraffes could remain uninfluenced by man for a sufficiently long period the probabilities are that the species now branching off would be clearly established.
The oldest, the best-known and the most common Giraffe is the three-horned species, found from central Uganda southward. The five-horned variety meets the former in Uganda, and occurs from that region westward to the edge of the great equatorial forest, and on westward even to Lake Tchad, and the lower Niger Valley. Excepting in Uganda, Kahma’s country, and a few other protected districts, the Giraffe is now rare, particularly throughout the regions that are accessible to hunters. Thousands of these wonderful creatures have been killed by hunters, both white and black, solely for the sake of seeing them dead, and leaving them as prey to the hyænas and hunting-dogs. It seems to be beyond the power of most men who can shoot to see living wild animals, no matter how large or wonderful, without desiring to reduce them to carcasses, fit only for scavengers.
NUBIAN GIRAFFES.
The Eland, (Taurotragus oryx), is the largest and most imposing of all antelopes. As might be inferred from its great size, it is now so nearly extinct that it has almost disappeared from the lists of dealers in wild animals. The fine young pair now in the Antelope House was presented by the Duke of Bedford, from his famous animal collection at Woburn Park. The fully adult female is the gift of Mr. C. Ledyard Blair.
Of Elands there are two well-marked species. That of eastern and southern Africa, here represented, was once numerous on many of the fertile plains of the great plateau now known as Rhodesia, and in fact throughout nearly the whole of the uplands of eastern Africa, from the Cape to the Sahara. Unfortunately, however, white hunters and modern firearms have reduced the countless thousands of the great herds to numbers so small that the capture and exportation of Elands have practically ceased.