6 4 
THE LION HOUSE AT THE ZOO 
animals improved is shown by the list of creatures 
which lived in the Gardens, including brown and black 
bears, leopards, and ocelots. 
The present Lion House, with its fine outdoor 
summer palaces, and its indoor winter cages, in a 
house warmed with hot water, is a combination of 
the two previous systems, and so far as health goes 
it seems to leave nothing to be desired. The Zoo 
of the future will probably contain lion houses of vast 
size, in which the creatures are allowed to live together 
in large numbers. This is the system adopted by 
the largest owner of wild animals in the world, Mr. 
Carl Hagenbeck, of Hamburg and New York. In 
his gardens at Hamburg, six lions, two Bengal tigers, 
and one from Siberia, live harmoniously in society 
with a polar bear, a Thibetan bear, and a number of 
leopards. The chance of a battle royal at meal time 
seems too great to be risked ; but Mr. Hagenbeck 
says, that provided the animals are associated when quite 
young, and that each addition to the family is a young 
one, there is no danger. Meantime the space and 
freedom of the great cages, and the absence of that 
ennui to which animals are subject when confined 
separately, or even in pairs, have the best effect on 
their growth and vivacity. In the Hamburg cage 
the polar bear will play and romp with the tigers for 
hours, and most wonderful exhibitions of strength 
may be seen daily in these wrestling matches between 
such gigantic and dissimilar creatures. 
Mr. Hagenbeck is the Moltke of the wild animal 
