Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1891 — Is THE ZOO OF BERLIN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Is THE ZOO OF BERLIN.

WILD ANIMALS PHOTOGRAPHED IN PURSUIT OF PREY. Graphic Pictures of Living Animals Taken . by Cameras iu the Berlin Thinrgarten —BemarkabU Results of Instantaneous Photography.

V —I HE Germans are the most thorough peom pie in the world, a says the New York E*Ml| Pras. What they undertake to do at all they do exceedingly well. Although Muybridge, Irak an American, was the first man to deJjLll velop and perfect figS®)! photography of animal locomotion, showing the horse

in motion, the Germans have just produced finer results than Muybridge or any other man in the same line. The Berlin Zoological Garden is one of the finest in the world. Hamburg, ;which is close at band, is the lion market of the entire circus world. Connected with the “Zoo,” the Germans • 'have fitted ud a wide inclosure where wild animals could be uncaged with per-

sect freedom, and left in something of the freedom of their native jungle. Even live game has Jbeen supplied to them, so that the tingers and leopards and hunt .-for prey as'their natural dl»6ti nets dictated. If such an experiment were tried In Central Park thd Society for the Prevention ofvCruelty to (small) Animals would probablyTwvvo a worg '¥> say. But Ln Berlin Jhe pursuit Of VPWfcjedge was no t hampered,, and tjtife*. cameras, placed at proper intervals in the artificial jungles, caught the pic-

tures. They show the animals in the act of pouncing upon their prey. It is understood that the Zoo'ogical Society, of Philadelphia, has become interested jn the matter through the instrumentality of Dr. Samuel G. Dixon, who brought back from Berlin a series of photographs apd presented them to the society. The society may try reproductions of its own, following the German method The German photographer, not sat'sfied with catching the animals in some characteristic situation, iu a most doli-

eat© and artistic manner reproduced artificially the character of the country in which the animals abound. The lions, for Instance, in the photograph seem to be moving about on a sandy plain of enormous extent; the bears are represented on rocky ground, with mountain ravines in the distance: a chamois seems to be on the edge of a precipice, looking across to distant cliffs at some of its fellows, the bison standing on top of a roll of ground calmly surveying the extent before him. If not known one would think the pictures were the result of an amateur s snap shots taken in the wilds of Asia, Africa, Europe and America. An observer has been among tigers taking notes, and has given the results of his observations to the world. As a general rule, he is inclined to doubt the truth of the commonly accepted theory that the tiger, after lurking in ambush, springs on the unsuspecting victim, and, ' tearing savagely at his throat, eagerly drinks his blood. This method of attack may sometimes be adopted, but it is far more often the exception than the rule. In approaching his prey, the tiger makes the best possible use of cover.

LT NX IN THB ACT OP CATCHING A LTTI FOWL. (From an instantaneous photograph.) _:£* -*,w > u ~ t . - ' ?■ «. ♦ ■<> y ...

but when further concealment is impossible he will course a deer or other swiftfooted animal with a quite extraordinary turn of speed. A da3h of 200 yards in the opQji is nothing uncommon, and author mentions the case of one tigress, «nth whom he says he was at one time

Quite intimately acquainted, who to catch a hog or deer almost daily on a perfectly open and burned-up plain. Small animals are for the most part dispatched with a blow of the paw, but in the case of the more bulky, the experienced tiger, leaping on the back of his victim, grips the

neck in front of the withers with his jaws, one forepaw clasping the shoulder of the animal and the other fully extended under the throat. Should he bo unable to crush the spine with his jaws he will then jerk the head back violently and thereby break the neck. “I have examined,” he says, “hundreds of animals killed by tigers, and have never yet detected injury to the blood vessels of the throat, but invari-

ably marks attributable to the above mentioned method. ” In removing his prey the tiger frequently displays almost phenomenal strength and activity. In one case cited by the author, a young tigress leaped up a perpendicular 'rock some six feet high with a man weighing nearly eleven stone In her jaws, and on another occasion a male tiger dragged an exceptionally large buffalo up a bank at least ten feet high. Whether these anecijptes accord or not with the individual experiences of other shikaris, they are at least an interesting addition to the literature of the subject.

A KING OF THE AMERICAS PRAIRIE IN BERLIN.

THE TERROR OF THE JUNGLE. (From an instantaneous photograph.)

A PAIR OP LEOPARDS FIGHTING OVER PREY. (From an instantaneous photograph.)

HOW AN OCELOT CATCHES A PIGEON. (From an instantaneous photograph.)