AFRICAN PARTY GETS RARE PICTURE OF WILD LEOPARD

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6815, 21 January 1929, Page 9

AFRICAN PARTY GETS RARE PICTURE OF WILD LEOPARD

A collection of rare pictures of animals in their native haunts, including what is believed to be the first photograph ever obtained of a wild leopard by daylight, have just been brought back from south-eastern Africa by James L. Clark, assistant director of the American Museum of Natural History, and G. Lister Carlisle. The first object of the expedition was to obtain a representative group of lions for the museum, and ,secondly, to acquire as complete a collection as possible of photographs showing the wild animals in their natural state. Mr Clark said that the photographs would be of great importance in the work of reconstructing groups altd in providing proper background and atmosphere. There will be used also in the museum’s department of public

education, ho said, and will servo to give students and children a correct idea of actual conditions in Africa. He described tho expedition as “a limited collection trip" which was intended to procure a few specimens for the museum, leaving tho country “as interesting for the next traveller and generation as wo had found it." The lion group will be one of the chief exhibits in the hall and it is very desirable that it should conform in accuracy as well as in artistic excellence to actual onditions. It will represent the lions in 'a thicket at the close of day. Mr Clark said the expedition had seen more than 300 lions during their trip, and that the specimens brought back will constitute one of the finest lion groups in any museum. Mr Carlisle emphasised the need of stricter regulations to conserve the wild game in eastern Africa. He said the present policy of allowing the natives to hunt the game without restriction was resulting in tho unnecessary destruction of game. ‘‘Tn some districts the natives catch 200 or 300 wild beasts a day in traps, making no use eithe rof the flesh or hide, but using only the tails and leaving the remainder to waste,'' he said.