912 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



LIFTING A CHATE FROM A SIIIFS HOLD 



net is liable to cause convulsions. From sucli 

 attacks they recover slowly, or perhaps not at 

 all. For animals of such intensely nervous dis- 

 position, we prejjare a trap door in the shifting 

 cage, securely fasten food at the end of the box, 

 and regulate the door to drop when the animal 

 grasps tlie morsel inside. Many of the small 

 carnivores, particularly the wild dogs and the 

 foxes, prefer to starve for days before making 

 an attempt to obtain the meat in the improvised 

 traps. 



In moving hoofed animals altogether different 

 precautions are taken. In this work our plan- 

 ning is directed more toward crating the animal 

 without injuring it. The deer and antelope are 

 naturally timid animals and become greatly ex- 

 cited when they note anything unusual about 

 to take place. Tiie mere sight of a crate sends 

 them scurrying to remote corners of their ranges 

 or corrals. For the heavy stock, like the bison, 

 we have long runways or chutes, into which the 

 animal may be run, when section gates are suc- 

 cessively closed behind them, finally forcing 

 tliem close to the crate. With such an arrange- 

 ment we crated fifteen bison in two days' time. 

 It is, of course, impossible to construct such 

 runways in all of the deer ranges, and we must 

 therefore resort to various schemes in capturing 

 and crating these nervous animals. In the past 

 eight years we have oilered for sale a con- 

 siderable number of hoofed animals bred and 

 born in the Park. This means the crating of a 

 great number of shy and active animals, and 

 our consultations have been many before we 

 could decide upon tlie best methods of capturing 

 them. Among several hundred deer shipped 

 from the Park very few specimens have been 

 sent away with as much as a bruise to illustrate 

 our difficulties in crating them. 



When we select deer to be crated, a consulta- 



tion is held with the keepers in charge and a 

 plan of campaign is mapped out. It is usually 

 advisable to secure tliese animals in tiieir shelter 

 houses where they may be handled at close 

 quarters ; but this is not always possible, as 

 some of our deer seldom go near their barns. 

 In cases like this a room of the barn is selected 

 as a trap, the animal's food is placed inside and 

 a long rope is attached to the door. A scheme 

 like this is not alwaj^s successful. Some deer 

 will innnediately become suspicious of the un- 

 usual [jroceeding and prefer to fast, remaining 

 out on the range where they arc satisfied in pick- 

 ing uj) leaves or nibbling at the sparse grass. It 

 was in this manner that we attempted to capture 

 a herd of red deer. We were in despair of 

 trajiping them in the room until we decided to 

 shut off their outside water supply and place a 

 drinking trough in the room, together with their 

 food. After five days' time, a man on guard 

 with a rope controlling the door, noted an incli- 

 nation of the animals to enter the house. They 

 liad several times approached the door, and 

 would have entered during the night, but a sud- 

 den storm completely upset our operations. A 

 heavy rain formed a generous pond in one cor- 

 ner of the range, and it was a full week's time 

 before we finally captured these specimens. 



It is considerably more diificult to pick out 

 certain deer running with the herd. In work 

 like this the plan is to run all the animals into 

 a supplementary corral, and then release those 

 not wanted. With all of the animals much ex- 

 cited and dasliing about in every direction it is 

 lively work to retain those specimens to be 

 crated. So difficult is the handling of some of 

 the hoofed animals that we often find it neces- 

 sary to erect temporary spans of fence to sepa- 

 rate them in the way described. When deer 

 to be crated are enclosed in a room, we resort 



SHIFTING A LARGE BEAR 



