Philadelphia Zoological Gardens Fairmount Park

Nook version of vintage article originally published in 1879. Contains lots of great info and illustrations seldom seen in the last 130 years.

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The splendid Zoological Garden at Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, was opened to the public in July, 1874, yet it has the air and general appearance of famous long-es¬tablished like institutions in Europe. Its collection of animals is already very exten¬sive, lacking hardly anything of grand importance to the mass of patrons, unless we might mention the hippopotamus. At the last annual meeting the superintendent reported 434 mammals, 453 birds, 58 batrachians, and 63 reptiles; and every visitor can testify to the exceedingly fine condition of most of the animals. The seals and sea-lions disport themselves in the water or sun themselves upon their island structures, sleek, fat, and apparently as happy as seals can be. One of them manifested his vigor not long since by climbing over the railing around his pond—four feet high, I should say—and taking a promenade over to a neighboring seal pond, whose enclosure he also scaled. I envy the visitors present at the moment. It would certainly be inter¬esting to know how a seal could climb a fence. I was told of this feat by the superintendent himself—a gentleman of distinguished manners, by-the-way, and a scientist of note.

The collection of seals in this garden is more extensive, I think, than that of any other—than that of the London Zoo, certainly—and seals are very expensive luxuries. The superintendent of the London Zoo says that "fourteen hundred-weight of fish per annum is no more than is ab¬solutely necessary to keep a seal in condition." Of course seals are accustomed to eating their food alive, and so difficult is the task of teaching them to eat dead fish that thirteen out of fifteen seals received at the Philadelphia garden died under the discipline. The general mortality among the seals, indeed, appears to be greater than anywhere else in the garden. One died in 1876 from peritonitis, and another under very distressing circumstances; this was a young female who "had the habit of generally staying in the water at night. During a very cold night, early in the winter, she lost the airhole she had kept open to breathe through, and not having strength to break the ice which formed over her, she was found in the morning drowned."

Among the rare animals may be mentioned two black leopards, a splendid rhinoceros weighing over three tons, three fine giraffes, and a large number of kangaroos. The kangaroos appear in most vigorous condition, and almost any time the visitor may see the little ones protruding from the maternal poach—the distinctive characteristic of the marsupial family. There are, however, some fish that have a pouch for their young. The hippocampus, or sea-horse, is an example. No one, it seems, has ever wit¬nessed the birth of the kangaroo; but it is certain that when first found in the pouch it is not much more than an inch in length, and looks exceedingly like the common garden "grub" worm. Structurally, indeed, the kangaroo is the most wonderful of animals.

The collection of camels, deer, buffalos, and zebus is very large. The black zebu (sacred bull of India) is a splendid animal, presented to the society by the Commission¬ers of Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Its color is very rare. Besides this one, there is another bull, four cows, and a little calf born in the garden. It is said that they can be easily acclimated here. If so, there may come to be a "rage" for zebus, and the milk of the sacred cow may yet be considered indispensable to all first-class hotels and restaurants! It is very rich and good, as the writer can personally testify, having once tasted it in the Amsterdam garden. These animals have commenced to breed in the garden at Philadelphia, and of course the extra stock will be sold. Indeed, there is no better testimony to the wise manage¬ment of the garden than the increasing number of rare animals that breed there. Lions, leopards, prairie wolves, Bingos, Java porcupines, zebus, camels, kangaroos, monkeys, brown coatis, beavers, Angora, goats, llamas, paroquets, golden pheasants, are given in the superintendent's report. Some of these, as is well known, very seldom breed in captivity, the monkey especially, and its young very rarely survives. The society has a large collection of monkeys, both of the Old and the New World, and their house, though large, has been found inadequate and ill ventilated, and a new one will probably soon take the place of the old. Per¬haps it will be modeled on the plan of that of the London Zoo, which