TIIIRTERXTH ANNUAL REPORT 141 



ease. Thcv were removed to the hospital cages, where one died, 

 the otlier making a good recovery withont nervous symptoms 

 remaining. 



Of all the diseases with which we have to contend, distemper 

 is the most insidious, and the most fatal, and on account of the 

 large number of species susceptible to this affection, every small 

 mammal which arrives at the Park is viewed with suspicion for 

 two weeks or more. Distemper is universally prevalent through- 

 out the count r\-. and is rarely absent for any length of time from 

 the channels of transportation and animal exchanges, and to 

 make the problem of control all the more difificult it is impossible 

 to determine the medium through which the infection reaches our 

 animals. For these reasons great precautions are necessary. 



Bronchial Filaria and Raincy's Cor/^iisclcs. — It is now several 

 years since either of these conditions have been found in the 

 animals of the elk herd. The health of this collection has never 

 been so satisfactory as at the present time. The same is true 

 of the red deer and Asiatic deer herds. 



Uinisiial Cause of Death. — An unusual cause of death was dis- 

 covered in the female black leopard which died on September 19. 

 At feeding time this animal and its cage mate quarreled over the 

 pieces of meat which were thrown into the cage. The keeper 

 reported that the male leopard fought for the meat which the 

 female had in her mouth, chasing her through the passage to the 

 outside cage, and he noticed that the male returned almost im- 

 mediately with the meat in his mouth. After the keeper had fed 

 the rest of the animals he took a piece of meat and proceeded to 

 the outside cage to give it to the female leopard. Xot finding her 

 out there he investigated further, and finally found her in the 

 sleeping box, dead. 



The autopsy which followed showed the cause of death to be a 

 piece of beef, five inches long and three-fourths of an inch thick, 

 firmly lodged in the upper part of the windpipe and larynx, which 

 the animal in her haste to swallow drew into the windpipe and 

 was unable to dislodge, thereby causing asphyxiation. 



Among the other unusual causes of deaths were the following : 

 Sarcoinafoiis grozcth attached to the spleen, weighing 8^ pounds, 

 in Eskimo dog "Bridge" : Trauniatic peritonitis in an aoudad : 

 Pericarditis and cysticcrci in a Baker's roan antelope : s^enerahced 

 infection zcith Cysticerci in a chamois; septic metritis in a buft'alo 

 cow^ ; and toxic gasfro-enteritis in a guanaco. 



Injuries. — There were a number of deaths as a result of un- 

 avoidable accidents, among them a young beatrix antelope, which 

 suft'ered compound comminuted fractures of both fore legs and 



