REPORT OF THE 



DIRECTOR OF THE ZOOLOGICAL PARK 



TO THE BOARD OF MANAGERS. 



THE year 1914 leaves us with a rather unusual number of 

 causes for regret. The epidemic of quick and strange tu- 

 berculosis that struck our apes last January was the most exas- 

 perating item of ill-fortune that ever has visited our animal 

 collections. The loss of the frail young blotched giraffe that 

 we had so long awaited from East Africa was not very surpris- 

 ing, but none the less disappointing. The mysterious partial 

 paralysis of the arms and legs of our gorilla is wholly unde- 

 served, but from that the animal is now recovering. 



On the other side of our annual accounting, we find the 

 usual number of benefits for which to be grateful. First of all, 

 the Board of Estimate lifted our maintenance fund out of a 

 Slough of Despond, and enabled us to live through the year 

 without hourly worry regarding our daily expenditures. The 

 Society's difficult and costly adventure in West Africa for a 

 live gorilla was a complete success, even despite the European 

 war. The success of Mr. Grant's efforts in the creation of a 

 pension fund for the Society's employees gave to our 170 men 

 and women an assurance of care in old age, and in widowhood, 

 such as they had remotely dreamed of but never had dared to 

 hope for. By taking $10,000 from the Animal Fund, because 

 there was no other source of supply, we were enabled to carry 

 out a long list of repairs to buildings that long had been await- 

 ing attention. Finally, the annual attendance of visitors at the 

 Zoological Park handsomely passed the 2,000,000 mark. 



ATTENDANCE. 



If the turn-stile attendance of visitors of any public educa- 

 tional institution is not to be taken as a good index of its popu- 

 larity, then where will an index be found? In its remoteness 

 from New York City's center of population and of street-car 

 service, the Zoological Park is heavily handicapped. For about 

 four-fifths of this city's population, our grounds are reached 



