The American Museum Journal 



Volume X\'I 



MARCH, 191() 



Number 3 



East Africa- Game Garden of the World 



A REVIEW OF ROOSEVKLT AND HELLER'S LIFE HISTORIES OF AFRICAN 



GAME ANIMALS^ 



By C. HART MERRIAM 



Illustrations chosen by the Editor from the photographs, drawings and maps in the Roosevelt and Heller 

 volumes and from cartoons of Roosevelt in McCuteheon's In Africa 



IN North America less than a century 

 ago the western plains supported 

 vast herds of hig-ganie animals — 

 antelope, buffalo, elk, and mide deer — 

 accompanied by bands of hungry wolves 

 and usually also by a fcM' grizzly bears. 

 But the steadily increasing pressure of 

 armed explorers, hunters, and fur traders, 

 followed by stockmen and later by ranch- 

 men, told heavily on the wild game, until 

 at present antelope, except in the Yel- 

 lowstone National Park, are reduced to a 

 few small bands; the buffalo as a wild 

 animal, except in the Yellowstone and 

 the Canadian Northwest, has ceased to 

 exist; the Plains grizzly has been ex- 

 terminated; the elk and mule deer have 

 been forced back into the less accessible 

 parts of distant mountains or have taken 

 refuge in our national parks, while of the 

 original Plains animals the wolf alone 

 remains in material numbers — and he 

 has altered his habits to meet the 

 changed conditions, keeping out of sight 



' Life Histories of Afriron Came Animals by Theodore 

 Roosevelt and Edmund Heller, with illustrations from 

 photographs, and from drawini.'S by Philip R. Goodwin; 

 and with 40 fannal mai>s. 2 vols. New York. Charles 

 Scribner's Sons. 1914. 



The account of the expedition, entitled African Game 

 Trails, by Theodore Roosevelt, was published four 

 years earlier (Scribner's 19101 and to lovers of wild 

 nature is a book of thrilling interest. 



in the daytime and preying at night on 

 the settlers' cattle in place of the buffalo 

 of bygone days. 



In other countries, including South 

 Africa, the course of events has been 

 much the same. But in East iVfrica, 

 owing partly to the astonishing tardiness 

 of exploration and settlement, and partly 

 to the foresight of the British Govern- 

 ment in setting aside large areas as game 

 preserves, wild beasts are still to be 

 found in amazing abundance. The num- 

 ber of kinds is no less surprising than the 

 numl)er of individuals. Nowhere else 

 on the globe exists an assemblage of game 

 animals in any way comparable; indeed, 

 the number is almost beyond belief. 

 For instance, not fewer than thirty spe- 

 cies of antelopes, gazelles, steinboks, 

 hartebeests, elands and their allies, in- 

 habit the region at the present time, 

 besides giraffes, zebras, buffalos, ele- 

 phants, rhinoceroses, hippos, lions, leop- 

 ards, cheetahs, jackals and hyenas. 



During the past half century this 

 surprising wealth of game animals has 

 attracted hunters from all quarters of the 

 globe. In the comparatively brief period 

 between the discoveries of Speke and 

 Grant and the hunting expeditions of 

 Selous, Harry Johnston, and Roosevelt, 



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