ANIMAL ACCLIMATISATION AT WOBURN ABBEY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2319, 11 August 1898, Page 55

ANIMAL ACCLIMATISATION AT WOBURN ABBEY.

(Spectator )

During the last four years the Duke 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, Lut 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 " i cserves " so spacious, and so lightly though effectively separated, that they have the oppearance 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, the McUichurian mountains and North American prairies, and from wild-animal land quod übique est, on the green pastures and under the elms and oaks round the home of a great English family? Briefly, we 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 animals seem solitary and deserted after the eye hn,s rested for hours on the varied and impressive forms that crowd, the slopes, groves, and glades of this fine park. This effect is due in part to the largeness of the scale on which the stocking of Woburn Avith wild animals has been carried out. In the phrase of the farmer, the park " carries a larger head ' of animals than is commonly seen on a similar area, even in the richest pastures. The scene recalls the descriptions of the early travellers in Southern, Africa, when the

large f,ui:;,i luitmed there in unbiokeii numbers, and with little fear of man. The coup 'd'ceil in parts of the park where the animals gather thickest is so striking that the mind descends reluctantly to the identification of the species, or to details of dates, origin, and management. From one positon, looking up a long green slope towards the abbey, there could be seen at the time of the writer's last visit betwten two and three hundred animals, both birds and beasts, feeding t-r sleeping within .sight oi: the immediate it out of the specator. These varied in species from cranes and storks and almost every known species ot bWcUi to wapiti stags, antelopes, and zebias, walking, sitting, galloping, j ceding, or bleeping. For qmie ii.'Jf a mile np the slope the while swans aud other wildfowl were dotted among Ibe deer and other ruminants, preSi'iHing a strange and most atti active examplo of the real "paradise" which aniii)a 1 * will make lor themselves when only ti-e geod beasts are selected to live together. 'J tin creatures in this animal Arcadia were giouped nearly as follows: — In the foregri litid was a large pool, circular, with clayey banks, one oi' a chain of ponds oi all sizes, from that of a fishpond to a large lake which lies lower in the park. On and around tins puol wcie many species of swans, and eight oi foreign geese, but the greater number of thet<e were scattered, us we "have said over some 100 acres of park. In the centre of the poiiti sat a cormorant, and on the grass by the- margin some gigantic cranes with crim&i)ij heads and grey wings were running and " d-mcing " in honour ot the sun, which was making its first appearance during four days. On the hill to the left, where the Abbey lies, were fi^-e distinct herds of deer. Three of the.se were fallow bucks and does. One herd wai of red deer and hybrids between the red doer and the wapiti. On the sky-line were a herd of pure-bred wapiti, with tlu'ee huge stags, their horns just cleaned from the velvet. In the centre slope in diminishing perspective, till they appeared mere dots among the trees, were mixed groups ot Japanese deer, the same breed which had thriven so remarkably in the parks ol Sir Edmond Loder and Lord Powerscourt, fallow bucks and does, red deer, both " red " and pure white, of which variety the park holds a considerable number, a few oilier and smaller foreign deer, and a group of five nylghau antelopes from India. Three of these were reddish-grey in colour, while two were real " blue bulls," very fine upstanding beasts, well suited to woodland scenery. Oa the right, within a hundred yards, Jying down or feeding under an ancient elm, were a small herd of zebras, as quiet and at th ' : r ease as so many New Forest ponies with their foals. Picture this animal population nmc/nec the groves and ancient, timber of an English park in May. Nor is this more than one among many such sights visible in this unique paradise.