HUNTING FOR THE ZOOS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12720, 15 August 1919, Page 2

HUNTING FOR THE ZOOS.

£IOOO ELEPHANTS AND £I2OO * GIRAFFES. A remarkable for wild animals lias just been received from a syndicate, of United States sportsmen by the World’s Zoological Trading Company, a British firm. The order, the largest of its kind in zoological commerce, includes the following:— 8 Hippopotamuses 15 Leopards 15 Elephants 15 Lions 8 Rhinoceroses 14 Cheetah 8 Giraffes 35 Zebras 35 Eland 15 Hartebeest 15 Waterbnck 10 Billy goats 40 Nanny goats. Also wild hogs and monkeysMr H. E. Osborne, a director of this firm, which thrives on a happy combination of business and adventure, stated that the American sportsmen making the purchase had. bought huge tracts of land and needed the aroma is for breeding- i: We have a number of the animals in stock,” he said, “ready for immediate delivery. “ There is a general shortage of wild animals. The world’s zoological societies during the war have not been able to replace animals, birds, and insects that have died. Hundreds of thousands of big game were killed during the East African campaign. Big-game binning, therefore, promises to lie lucrative work for adventurous young men.” The following'were stated to be the present prices Elephant, £1000; rhinoceros, £.1000; giraffe., £1200; lion (black mane), £500; zebra, £100; cheetah, £6O to £7O; leopard, £6O; wild dog, £2O. Inferior types of lions are to be had at £IOO each, and a cheaper variety of elephants at £SOO. Freight rates are ve-ry high. A passage for a giraffe from Africa .before the war. £3O, now- costs £l5O, while the rate for a leopard is £6O. or the market value of the animal.