IN NATURAL STATE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19503, 9 December 1937, Page 3

IN NATURAL STATE

AFRICAN ANIMALS VIEWED FROM MOTOR CAR The ability to view wild animals in their natural home is given to the visitor to South Africa, and Mr. J. R. Kirk, of Wellington, who has returned from a trip to South Africa, made interesting comparisons between animals kept in captivity and those which have their freedom. "Of all my experiences, the outstanding was a visit to the Kruger National Park, that great reserve of 8000 square miles in the Eastern Transvaal adjoining the Portuguese East African border, whose boundaries from north to south are over 200 miles in length and from cast to west 40 miles," he said. "Here, but for the building of roads through the reserve, Nature has been left alone and protected, and the fauna of Africa to live unmolested except by the friendly visits of nonkilling tourists. The first animals I saw in the park were-lions. Then there was a leopard, and as we motored slowly along great was our interest and excitement as numerous wildebeeste, zebra, warthog, waterbuck, impala, kudu, monkeys, and tribes of baboons came within easy view, and the graceful duiker and the jackal were startled. And then the hippopotami, disporting themselves in the river! The Greatest Impression

"But of all the beasts of the forest, the giraffes made the greatest impression. As we approached it was difficult to detect them among the foliage, so effective is the camouflage of their skins, but our arrival did not disturb fhem. To see such animals in a zoo is to realise what the 'inferiority complex' is; to view them, as is the case with all animals in the great attractive asset of South Africa, in their natural surroundings, is to make one realise the wickedness of wantonly destroying them for alleged sport. Birds, too, find sanctuary in the reserve, and vultures, hornbills, and many other types were seen. "We stayed overnight in a rondavel within a 'kop' on the reserve, and heard the forest sounding with the alarms and excursions while the great killing beasts went on their food expeditions. No one visiting Africa should miss the experience of seeing Africa's fauna in its proper setting. I

could not help thinking of the day when, protection having been secured, New Zealanders and visitors to our shores would assemble annually in North Auckland to watch the assembly and flight of the godwit to its Arctic breeding grounds."