204 BEASTS AND MEN 
activities whatever. The giraffes, elephants, and gazelles, 
which are accustomed to wander in large herds through the 
plains or forests, find themselves suddenly isolated and con- 
demned to drag out their existence in solitary confinement. 
It is not to be wondered. at that weakness and enervation 
should ensue asa result. Among all animals a sort of mental 
depression seems to take place when they have been only re- 
cently captured ; and in the case of the more highly evolved 
and nervous animals, such as’ the anthropoids and especially 
the gorillas, this mental depression’ often terminates in death. 
The power of adaptation to new climates varies greatly with 
different animals. It is most developed in the case of those 
animals which are accustomed to wander about on large con- 
tinental plains, for there is there a considerable difference in 
the temperatures of day and night, and they are accustomed, 
in consequence, to suffer extremes. As long ago as the 
seventies I began acclimatisation experiments at Neuer 
Pferdemarkt with giraffes and elephants. One winter about 
that time was so severe that I was unable to raise the tem- 
perature of the stables in which the giraffes were kept to 
more than a few degrees above freezing-point, but I found 
that the cold did the creatures no harm. They grew a thick 
crop of winter hair, thus reacting to their new environment, 
and by the end of the winter their hair was about two and 
a half times as long as giraffe hair usually is. 
In founding my animal park at Stellingen the chief 
principle which I kept in view was that each animal should be 
kept in an environment which differed as little as possible from 
its own natural environment. For this purpose one of the 
first requisites was to give them plenty of space to wander 
about in, so that their diminished freedom should be felt as 
little as possible. The next thing was to endeavour to har- 
den them against the influence of the cold and wet, for which 
European climates are so remarkable. The case of African 
ostriches may be cited as a model of what can be done in 
this respect. 
