ACCLIMATISING ANIMALS IN ENGLAND

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 8, 11 January 1899, Page 3

ACCLIMATISING ANIMALS IN ENGLAND

The 'Spectator' contains an interesting account of the Duke of Bedford's successful efforts to acclimatise animals of different, countries in his park at Woburn Abbey. The writer savs:-^-

During the last four years the Dukf. of Bedford has carried out a scheme of animal acclimatisation in the park at Woburn Abbey on a scale never before attempted in this country. Birds as well as quadrupeds are the subjects of this experiment, and the magnificent pheasants of China and India haunt the woods in large numbers. But the greater number of the animals are various • kinds of deer, of which no fewer than 31 species are in the open park or paddocks—bison, zebras, antelopes, wild sheep and goats and yaks. The novelty and freshness of this experiment consist not only in the accumulation of such a number of species, interesting as this is to the naturalist, but in their way of life, free and unconfined in an English park. That is the lot of the greater number of the animals at Woburn, some. being entirely free and wandering at large, like the native red deer and fallow deer, while the others, though for the present in separate, enclosures, are kept in 'reserves' so spacious, and so lightly though, effectively separated, that they have the appearance of enjoying the same degree of liberty. Almost the first question which suggests itself is, What is the general effect of this gathering of over-sea animals, from the African veldt and Indian hills, th£ Manchurian mountains and North American prairies, and from wild-anijnal land quod übique est, on the green pasture^ and under the-elms and oaks round the home of a great English family? Briefly, w6 may.say that the effect is magnificent. During the journey back by train through Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, the valleys and meadows stocked with our ordinary domestic seem solitary and deserted after the eye has rested for hours on the varied and impressive forms that crowd the slopes, groves, and glares of this fine* park. This effect .'due in part to the largeness of the scale on which the stocking of Woburn with wild animals has been carried out. In the phrase of the farmer, the park ''carries; a larger head' of animals thaii is cOmmoiily seen on a similar area, eyen in the richest piastures. The scene recalls the descriptions of the early traveller's in Southern Africa, when the large, fauna roamed there in. unbroken numbers, and with little fear of map. The coup 'd'oeil in parts ojf the. park where the animals gather thickest is so strikr ing that the mind dtescends reluctantly to the identification of the sp^ci^, or. to details of dates, origin, an.Q management. From one position, looking up a long green slope towards the ahbe3*, there could be Been at the time 6f the writer's last visit between t\yp and tliree hundred animals, both birds and beasts, feeding or sleeping within sight of. the immediate front of the spectator. These varied in species from cranes and storks and almost every known species of swan to wapiti stags, antelopes, e^pd zebras, wa.lkihg, sitting, galloping, feeding, or sleeping. - .For quite half a mil'eT' iip the slope the white swa^s and other wildfowl were dotted among the deer and other ruminants, presenting- a stratige and. most attractive sample of the real 'paradise' which animals will make for themselves when only the' good beasts are selected to lite together. ; . - ' The creatures in this animal Arcadia were grouped nearly as follows: —-In the foreground was a large pool, circular, With clayey bankg, on§ of a chain of pajifls of all sizps, from that of a fishpond to! a. large lake which lies lowfir in the park.Qii and aro^n^ this pool \vere many species of sw^ns, and eight qf foreign geese, hint the greater number of these :were scatter-; ed, as we have said, oyer some IQO acres of park, In the centre of the:. pond sat a cormorant, and on the grass by the margin some gigantic cran§s with crimson heads: and greiy wings were running apd 'dancing' in hpn«ju_p of the sun, which-was marking its first appearance during four days. On the hill to the left, where the abbey lies, were .five distinct herds of deer. Three of these were1 fallow bucks and does. One hercl was of red deer and hybrids between the red deer and the wapiti. On the sky-line were a herd of pure-bred wapiti, with three huge stags, their horns just cleaned from the velvet. In the centre slope in diminishing perspective, till they appeared mere dots iimong the: trpeg, were mixed groups of Japanese deer, the sajnp, breed which had thriye|i S:} remarkably in the parks of Sir Ednicind' Loder and Lord Powerscoiirt, _f.aUp-\y bucks; and does, red dper,-both 'red' and pure white, of wiich variety the park holds a considerable number, a few other and smaller foreign deer, and a group pf five nylghau anfelopea from. In^lia, Three of the^s were reddishrgrey ip colour, while twp were real 'blue'bulls,' very fine upstanding beasts, well suited to woodland scenery. On the right, within a hundred yards, lying down pr feeding under, a^ ancient elm, werp a sniair. feerd of ?ebras, as quiet and at their ease as sp many New Forest ponies with their foals. Picture this animal population among1 the groves and ancient timber of an English park in May. Noy_ j? this more than one aniong many such sights visible in this unique par^ise.