ANIMAL ACCLIMATION AT WOBURN ABBEY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 11317, 8 September 1898, Page 1

ANIMAL ACCLIMATION AT WOBURN ABBEY.

(Spectator). DußiNGjthe 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 great ( number of the animals are various kinds of deer, of which no fewer than 31 species are in the optn park or pad-docks-—bison, zebras, antelopes, wild sheep, and goats and yaks. The novelty ani freshness of this experiment consist not only in the accumulation of such a number of species, interesting as this is to the naturalist, but »n their way of life, free and unconfined in an English park. That is the lo'; of the great number of the animals at Woburn, some being entirely free and wandering at large, like the native red deer and fallow drr il,i 1 , while the others, though, for the present in separate enclosures, are kept in " reserves " so spacious, and so lightly though effectively separated, that they have the appearance of enjoying ihe bame degree of liberty. Almost the first question which sueW? n»elf is, what is the general effect of this gathering of over-sea animals, from the African veldt and Indian bills, the Manchurian mountains and Korth American prairies, and from wildanimal land quod übique eat, 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 onr ordinary domestic animals seem solitary and deserted after the eye has rested for hours on the varied and impressive forms that cowd the Blopes, 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 with 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 ia Southern Africa, when the large fauna roamed there in unbroken numbers, and with little fear of man. The coup 'd'oeil 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 position^ looking up ■ a long green ' slope towaids the abbey, theie can be seen at the time of the writer's last visit beiween two and three hundred animals, both birds and beasts, feeding or sleeping within sight of the immediate front of the spectator. These varied in species from cranes aud storks and almost every known species of swan to wapiti stags, antelopes, and zebras, walking, sitting, galloping, feeding, or sleeping. For quite half a mile up the slope the white swans and other wildfowl were dotted among the deer and other ruminants, presenting 1 a strange and most attractive example of the real "paradise" which animals will make for themselves when only good beasts are selected to live together.

The creatures in this animal Arcadia were grouped nearly as follows ,'7^-In the foreground was a large pool, circular, with clayey banks, one of a chain of ponds of all sizes, from that of a fish- , pond to a large lake which lies ]ower in the park. On and around thh pool were many species of' swans, aad eight of foreign geese, but the greater number of these were scattered, as we have said over some 100 acres of j,ark. In the centre of the pond sat a cormorant, and on the grass by tlio margin some gigantic cranes with crimson heads and gray svings were running and " dancing " in honour of the su.i, which was making its first appearance during four days. On the hill to the left, where the Abbey lies, were five distinct herds of deer. Three of these were fallow bucks and does. One herd was of red deer and hybrids between the red deer and wapiti. On the sky-line were a herd of pure bred wapiti, with three 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 of Japanese deer, the same breed which had thriven ■o remarkably in the parks of ,Sir Edmond Loder and Lord Powerscourt, fallow bucks and does, red deer, both. ; " red " and pure while, of which, variety the parks holds a considerable number, a few other and smaller foreign deer, and a group of fine nylghau antelopes from India. Three of these were reddish-gray in colour, while two were real " blue bulls," very fine upstanding beasts, well ' suited to woodland' scenery. Ou the right, within a hundred yards, lying down or feeding under an ancient elm, were a small herd of zebras, &b quiet and at their ease as so many New Forest ponies with their foals! Picture this animal population among 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.

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