Animals Tamed by Hunger

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6788, 20 February 1932, Page 10

Animals Tamed by Hunger

Tho wooded hills of the Harz Mountains, in Germany, a favourable resort of summer tourists, offer in winter splendid opportunities for all kinds of winter sports. There is a special attraction not only for these, but for all lovers of nature, in tho spectacle presented when great herds of wild animals are fed by the foresters and lessees of hunting preserves. Of some 600,000 acres covered by tho Harz, about 420,000 acres aro wooded, and game, especially elk, is abundant. When deep snow covers tho ground the game must bo fed, otherwise mortality would bo great. From December until spring the visitor has manifold opportunities of seeing at closo range these normally timid denizens of the forest, which hunger tames for the time. Everywhere in the Harz, but mainly in the val«eys and near forester’s houses, the game, chiefly elk, comes to its accustomed feeding places, whore it finds horse chestnuts, acorns, carrots and hay, and for a timo forgets its fear of man.

A more varied picture is presented in the 11,009 acre fenced ducal park near Ballenstcdt. Hero one sees not only elk and roedeer, but also fallow doer, wild swine and mouflons, the wild sheep of Sardinia and Corsica, which have been liberated in various parts of Germany and havo speedily adapted themselves to the changed conditions.