ON THE VARIABILITY IN THE NATURE OR TEM- 

 PERAMENT OF WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY, 

 WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SOUTH AFRICAN 

 SPECIES. 



By Alwin K. Haagner, F.Z.S. 



It has often struck me during my six years' connection with 

 the Transvaal Zoological Gardens — first as Superintendent and 



then as Director how the temperament of a wild animal often 



changes in captivity — i.e., how different it may become from the 

 ordinary nature of the beast in its wild state. One peculiar 

 point in this connection is the fact — first noticed by the late A. 

 D. Bartlett (for many years Superintendent of the London Zoo- 

 logical Gardens — that, as a general rule, the descendants of wild 

 animals boni in captivity are much wilder th.an those captured 

 in the field and subsequently tamed. This is especially the case 

 with deer and antelope. We have had buck captured when half 

 grown which had become so tame and confiding that they came 

 up to me when I called them, and others, again, born in the 

 Gardens, which dashed off at the approach of anyone, even the 

 men who worked with them daily. ( )ne reason for this is no 

 doubt the fact that an animal which is born in captivity — in a 

 Zoological Garden, at any rate — is hardly ever " man-handled." 

 whereas a wild caught antelope, or similar aninial, would be 

 almost continually handled by its owners or its caretaker on 

 account of the artificial rearing which would be necessary. 

 Another noteworthy fact is that animals vary individually amongst 

 themselves to a considerable extent ; this remark will be made 

 clearer at a later stage of my paper. 



Order Prim vtrs. 



The members of this order are, as a general rule, unreliable, 

 pugnacious, and even vicious in captivity, although in the wild 

 state fairly timid and shimning the presence of human beings 

 as much as possible. As, however, they are of such varied size, 

 temperament, and habits, it would be best to divide them into 

 their natural groups. 



Manlike Apes iSiniid(e). — The late A. D. Bartlett, in his 

 book, " Life Among Wild Beasts in the Zoo." remarks on the 

 habits of a Chimpanzee received by the London Zoological Gar- 

 dens in 1883, and which, partly on account of its habits, he con- 

 sidered a new species. It subsequently proved to be the bald- 

 headed Chimpanzee (A. cahnis), but a specimen of the common 

 Chimpanzee in the Pretoria Zoological Gardens has developed 

 habits akin to those of Bartlett's baldheaded animal, and yet it 

 is undoubtedly the ordinary species. Bartlett. as before-men- 

 tioned, at first considered the now historic " Sally " new to 



