What Wild Animals Cost.

Otago Witness, Issue 2862, 20 January 1909, Page 90

What Wild Animals Cost.

— Giraffes bv<] Hippopotami Bring the Highest Pnce=. — Wild animal- from the Gizeh Zoological Hardens in Kg:', j-t delivered during iho year- 1896-ISO3 at London. Marseilles. H:.mburg, an<l Rouerda n. reali=ed the following prices. The "king- of bea--ts." the lion, sod omrii"<ti\ely choi'p. mainly because the 00-^t of fcedinjr made buyers shy of the inve^tij" iit Fine wild-born hou- I'cahsed from £75 10 £100. Mona^ene-born animals ccst on an avcracre £10. A lioness luis bt^en sold for ur<ler £4 ; while, on the other band. £240 to £303 i* not too big a pi ice to «-k for an excei;L.onilly fine specimen of lion. l'i:ii'as — occasionally d-t^enberi as lions — are not in such demand ; £5 will often buy one; fair average specimens fetoh £15. £20. and a few £30. The tig«r is, hovreter, a

J high-priced animal ; £100 is the lowest i figure at which he cells, with £80 for a j tigress. A specialty of value is th© European lynx. A young one cannot be ha-d for less than £20, and the full-grown animal is worrh I from £25 to £35. Wolves are a weals ' market; £2 ie their average per head — £1 c the minimum and £5 the top price. Catch n a fox quite young, and the cub may realise 0 . £1, 10s, or only just ss; full grown, ita P value is £2. ■ Polar bears always maintain their price, i Very rarely does a specimen change hands ! ft less than £30; but other kinds of bear 0 come cheaper. A sea-lion costs £20. * , Hippopotami have no quotation in some i markets. When in supply, this prehistorclooking beast is worth from £600 to £750. Eiephants are much more widely dealt in. ! A youn^ one may be purchased for from 1 £200 to' £250. i ! But most considered of wild animals is fc ] the giraffe. Previous to 1898 it was imi possible to buy one for less than £1000; ; ■ in 1903-+ the price had shrunk to £250, ' I which did not repay the cost of imporfca- " tion. The actual market value of a young giraffe in good condition may now be quoted at anywhere from £500 to £600. * ' As to the monkey market, the chimpanzee yariec a good deal in price, a young one j ' in conditior fetching from £50 to £70. Other big apes are more expensive, alJ though at times there goes begging a good chance, as in the Suez market, where <v (. young orang-outang, almost full grown wag on offer at £8 recently — a real bargain. . f BarbaTy apes, of the kind which 6till ' ; inhabit Gibraltar Rock, sell at £3 to £8. 'j ' Bombay and South-west China monkeys are } not held of much account ; £1 will buy one. i Baboon 6 cost more — generally from £2 to j £20, according to the specimen. i ___________ 1 j A scheme is being arranged for the pro- " | tection of the manlike apes in the Gers ! man colonies of equatorial Africa. It is ' ! proposed in the first place that the shoot- : | ing of these creatures should be striotly \ ' prohibited and steps taken for their proL tection. In connection with this it ie pro- ' posed to establish in the Cameroons a 1 special reserve for the fauna of the equa- * torial forest generally. This reserve 1 , would include a zoological tropical station. ; ; with gardens attached, in which attention ; i would be specially directed to the pro- ' , tection and rearing of the anthropoid apes 1 , and other denizens of the forest zone. The ' , scheme would likewise include tho study of j the fresh-water fauna of ths tropics generj ally as well as the investigation and cure [| of tropical diseases. The establishment of I ( a marine zoological station in Ea6t Africa ' i and a (perhaps movable) fresh-water station \ ! on the tgreat lakes likewise form a part ' of the project. j Elephants, like th© American bison, are . : fast disappearing. In 1886 a worker in ; ivory in Sheffield endeavoured, in all eeri- . ousness, to figure out how long th© elephant would laet. His own house, he , said, had in one year used 1280 pairs of i I tusks, which meant the killing of more than that number of animals, for not every , I elephant yields two tusks to the ivory- , j huntea-. That the African species, is fast I disappearing there is little doubt. ' There ; are many elephante in Ceylon, and from J that island most of those that are disI played in travelling menageries and in j zoological gardens come. The 6howman has very little use for the African elephant, because Jie is lees intelligent than his Indian cousin, and much meaner in disposition. The African elephant is the longerlegged and smaller-boned animal. Jumbo, who was a half-breed, had the long legs | of the African and the large body of the j Indian elephant. Jumbo was undoubtedly I the largest of all elephants, standing 12ft ! Bin in height. The largest elephant reI membored in India was one ridden by the I Viceroy in 1880, which stood 10ft 4in. Colonel Pollock records that the King of Burmah had a, sacred white elephant which was 2in taller.