14 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



through all this runs a broad, clear 

 stream, of a size well above the aver- 

 age creek as so designated on the 

 maps. Rivulets, with their frequent 

 little water-falls, empty into this 

 stream, the whole affording, with re- 

 spect to both land and water, an ideal 

 reserve for the purpose for which it 

 has been selected. 



As to climate, Washington is very 

 fortunately situated and leaves but 

 little to be desired as a place of lo- 

 cation for a zoological garden in this 

 part of the world. Rarely are her 

 winters severe, and the polar bears 

 and fur-seals seem to survive her sum- 

 mers, year in and year out, without 

 any special hardship. 



Under these favorable conditions, and 

 in face of the enormous wealth of this 

 country — both public and private — 

 there is absolutely no excuse as to why 

 our National Zoological Park should 

 not meet every requirement that the 

 people have the right to expect from 

 such an institution. Of many of its 

 uses, however, it is not the purpose of 

 the present article to treat, for they 

 do not fall within its scope. 



The questions to be dealt with here, 

 although closely associated with 

 others pertaining to the advantages of 

 a zoological park, can very properly 

 be considered separately. In one way, 

 the scientific care and exhibition of 

 animals of all kinds in a "zoo" en- 

 compasses all other matters involved, 

 while the moral factor, if it may be 

 so termed, enters very largely into 

 our discussion. These captured and 

 confined animals are just as much en- 

 titled to their rights and comforts as 

 are the individuals of any community. 

 In illustration of this, abundant ma- 

 terial is to be met with in the Na- 

 tional Zoological Park at Washington, 

 and it must be understood that it is 

 this park, and it alone, which has fur- 

 nished the examples under discussion 

 here. 



With respect to the exhibition of 

 animals in a zoological garden, there 

 are a great many thing to be con- 

 sidered, though, generally speaking, 

 these may be arrayed under two re- 

 quirements, first : the maintaining of 

 the welfare and happiness of the crea- 

 tures so confined, and second : that 

 their quarters are sufficiently spacious 

 to admit of the occupants enjoying the 



majority of the habits they exhibit in 

 a wild state. These demands are in- 

 timately associated and largely de- 

 pend one upon the other. 



Restricting what is said here to 

 birds and mammals, it is one of the 

 most distressing sights in the world to 

 observe a caged animal in a zoological 

 garden, where its home is so small for 

 it that, notwithstanding the care be- 

 stowed upon it, it gradually pines 

 away from the many causes that mili- 

 tate against its happiness. We will 

 not fully appreciate what many birds 

 and mammals daily suffer in cramped 

 quarters — often perpetually sunless 

 and utterly lacking in everything they 

 need or enjoy in their native haunts— 

 until we come to understand their 

 several languages; their emotions and 

 expressions, and their actions under 

 various conditions. We have no 

 right — beyond the question of might — 

 to subject these creatures to the tor- 

 tures that many of them endure in 

 captivity in our zoological gardens; 

 and, in altogether too many cases, it 

 is a burning shame and an outrage 

 that we do do so. 



There is every reason to believe 

 that, in far too many instances, some 

 of these animals suffer, day in and 

 day out and at all times (except when 

 asleep), precisely what representatives 

 of our own species would under simi- 

 lar conditions. Frequently, their lives 

 are sustained upon a victualage quite 

 foreign to their requirements. Many 

 diseases attack them, often causing 

 daily torture or premature death ; 

 while everything incidental to repro- 

 duction is interfered with to the men- 

 tal and physical distress of the captive. 

 Much might be set forth on this, the 

 moral aspect of the question, which 

 would prove to be of decided import- 

 ance to humanitarians everywhere; 

 but the limitations of space bar further 

 allusion to it here. 



Passing to another phase of this 

 question, it is clear that a very poor 

 economy is exercised when a people 

 spends a vast sum of money out of 

 the public exchequer to maintain a 

 collection of living wild animals, for 

 exhibition in a public park, to then be 

 guilty of the glaring error of placing 

 some of the most valuable of those 

 animals in dens, cages, pits, and other 

 miserably small places, where, to be 

 sure, during the life-span of the ani- 



