EMPIRE ANIMALS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 27, 31 July 1940, Page 9

EMPIRE ANIMALS

WORK OF PRESERVATION

When so much of, mankind is concerned with the destruction of one another the work of preventing the extermination of species of wild animals in the British Empire does not stop, says the "Manchester Guardian." The Society for the Preservation of the Fauna of the Empire in its journal has many curious tales of its work, not all of them successes. A quagga, for instance, was reported in the northern areas of South-west Africa, and Mr. C. H. Hahn, the Native Commissioner, investigated. Its discovery would have been great news indeed. However, all his searches pointed to the conclusion that it was Hartmann's mountain zebra. It was also reported that there were Burchell's zebras in the district, but here, too, was disappointment, as only Chapman's zebra, a less rare but somewhat similar variety, was found.

The journal maintains its reputation for curious information about man-eating tigers. One described as an experienced hunter gives this contribution to the subject: "I know," he writes,» "that a man-eating tiger has no scent. Unarmed I sat on one occasion as motionless as death for an awful five minutes while the beast slowly walked towards me along a footpath,, stopping every now and again to scratch. She passed within three yards of me in the open (bracken and short grass) and never turned her head, bent (as Brander puts it, although in another way) because of the weight of sins of her last victim whose ghost shows her where her next victim stands. That evening my shikari and I went after her and we 'met' her in the darkness, but she did not attack and we could not see her. Next morning we knew the reason. She had slain a girl gathering wood and was gorging when we became awar© of her presence."