NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK HOLLISTER. 549 



ance and huge tusks. A fine pair of this peculiar wild pig are to be 

 seen in quarters in the antelope house. 



The American representatives of the pig family, the peccaries, are 

 found wild from Texas southward over much of Middle and South 

 America. Two general types are distinguished, the white-lipped 

 and the collared peccaries. The latter ranges farther to the north 

 than the larger white-lipped group and was formerly common in the 

 United States along the Mexican border. Although peccaries are 

 doubtless at times, especially when roving in large packs, dangerous 

 beasts to encounter, the stories told of their ferocity are often greatly 

 exaggerated. The collared peccary of Texas (Pecari angidatus) 

 has frequently bred in the National Zoological Park. 



THE CAMEL TRIBE. 



Whether any of the wild camels of Central Asia are really native 

 wild animals or not is a moot question. Many naturalists believe 

 that the Bactrian or two-humped camels now found in a wild state 

 in remote parts are merely the feral descendants of stray domestic 

 animals, after the manner of the wild Spanish horses formerly occur- 

 ring in the southwestern United States. Camels are popularly asso- 

 ciated with hot barren deserts, but the two-humped camel (Camelus 

 hactrianus) is used in great numbers on the bleak steppes of Siberia 

 where the temperature at times is anything but moderate. Great 

 caravans of these famous beasts of burden carry the rough felt and 

 other products of the desert tribes and Mongolians northward to 

 the Siberian Railway. The specimens of this species kept in the park 

 are much more hardy than the Arabian camels. 



The dromedary, or Arabian camel (Camelus dromedarius) is the 

 species so much used as a pack and saddle animal in northern Africa. 

 A drove of 75 camels of this species was introduced by the United 

 States Government from Smyrna into the southwestern states in 1856, 

 and others were obtained 10 years later. Escaped animals from these 

 introductions frequented the Arizona deserts in a wild state up to 

 about 1893, when the last survivors were killed. Both species of 

 camels have bred in the park. 



From the evidence provided by fossil remains, America was at one 

 time inhabited by many camels and camel-like animals, which occu- 

 pied the country even so far to the north as the arctic portions of 

 Alaska. The sole remaining species are the forms of the genus Lama 

 found in South America. 



The wild llama, or guanaco (Lama huanachws) is found in herds 

 from Ecuador to southern South America and ranges from sea level 

 in Patagonia to high altitudes in the Andes. It differs conspicu- 

 ously from the Old World camels in its small size and the absence 

 65133°— sm 1917 36 



