The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-01-20 00:00:00

OUR LAST HIPPOPOTAMUS.

We take the following extracts on "Our Last Hippopota-
mus" from a very interesting paver in the holly Tetegraph,
contributed by their special reporter, who has paid a visit
to the Zoological (ionic., in Regent's lark, Loudon:—

The poor little hippopotamus is dead. It was
scarcely expected to live; but its death was neverthe-
less a severe disappointment, especially after the trouble
and personal risk that were involved in the attempt to
save its life. About five o'clock in the morning of Sun-
day, the 7th inst, the little animal was horn. The keeper
knew that it was there, from the odd sounds made by
its mother— sounds of angry jealousy against some foe
unknown. She slapped her vast jaws together,
gnashed her teeth, and snorted loud defiance;
though no one was in the house except the keeper,
who was watching her from his unseen post of obser-
vation above. As daylight broke, the small hippopo-
tamus was seen lying by its mother; and the two were
anxiously watched in order to find out whether the
young one took nourishment. This it was never seen
to do. It followed its mother about wherever she
went, so that it was not deficient in strength; but
it was never once seen to suck. Still, though in
the daytime it certainly took no nourishment, it is
impossible to say whether or not it may have
done so at night; for many of those animals
ale exceedingly shy and wary, and will not even feed
if they think that they can be seen.. . . Two days
having thus passed, it was evident that unless the
young one could be separated from its mother and
artificially fed, it must inevitably die ; but the diffi-
culty lay in the mode of separation. To rob a moth a
of her young is proverbially dangerous; and when the
mother is a savage, cross-grained beast, weighing some
three tons, and capable of "chewing up a human"
with the greatest ease, the task is peculiarly perilous.
On Tuesday, the 9th' an attempt was made to get the
mother away from her child. The two were lying
on the ground, at some little distance from the
water ; and it was thought that if the mother could
be decoyed into the pond, it might be possible to ab-
stract the young calf before she could get out again.
Now, this creature is emphatically a good hater. She
hates all kinds of things and persons. She hates work-
men without their coats. I once saw her charge at a
workman, and bite at the iron bars so savagely that
she broke one of her enormous teeth completely into
the jaw. But if there be one thing she hates beyond
all, it is the garden engine. The very sight of
it, or even the sound of its wheels, sets her
beside herself with rage, and whenever she sees it
she is sure to charge.. Accordingly the engine
was run towards the water. In went the
hippopotamus ; but, unfortunately, the little one
plumped in after its mother, so that the ruse failed of
its effect. The calf, in spite of its tender age,
evidently enjoyed the water very much, swam about,
and finally went to sleep, with its chin resting on the
side of the bond—a favourite attitude with these ani-
mals. Next day, when the mother walked about the
house, her child lay still, being evidently weaker; so
that Mr. Bartlett, the superientendent of the Gar-
dens, decided on making another attempt to
get the calf out of the home. He got trgether a
small but effective staff, and laid out ha plans.
In order that the public may realise the difficulty
of the situation, the perilous nature of the task, and
the ingenuity of the device, I must briefly describe the
scene of operations. On the right of the den is a small
pond, shut off from the platform at will by iron rail-
, ings ; and on the extreme left is a small door/ barely
thirty inches square. The scheme was as follows:
The garden engine was to be again run into Oe build-
ing, and so soon as the hippopotamus charged flte the
water, one of the men was to dash into the cage--if
possible, to shut the animal into the pond, get out the
young one, and make his escape before the mother
could reeve* aim.
Accordingly, Mr. Bartlett stood by the door, ready
to open it at the right moment; his son, with i'homp-
son and Godfrey, two of the keepers was close at baud
with a stout cloth ! Prescott, the head keeper. was in
charge of the engine, and Scott, the elephant-keeper
a very active and daring man—was selected for Use
dangerous task of entering the den. Everytling was
arranged, to use Mr. Bartlett's own expreasior, "like
a trick in a pantomime ;" for the whole fissinese
could not last more than a few seconcle. All
being ready, Prescott ran the engine into the
house and began to primp into the pond, that
being the insult whirls the hippopotamus will
least of all endure. In she went, and, 38 she rose,
Prescott pumped the water in her face; thus half
blinding her, and gaining just the time that was
needed. Simultaneously Scott ran into the den,
picked up the young calf, which was lying close to
the water, and handed it through the door to Mr.
Bartlett and his assistants. The expectant party
took it in the cloth, and ran away with it. Mr.
Bartlett fastened the door, Prescott ran tie en-
gine out of the house ; and, before she recevered
from the surprise of the water in her face, the
enraged hippopotamus found herself alcfne,
with nothing on which to vent her fur:. Of
course, she missed her calf, and began to hunt
for it, but her rage soon cooled down when she could
see no enemy; and, except bearing a rather leeper
grudge than usual against Mr. Bartlett, she cepained
her usual temper. Still, when I paid her a list, she
looked ominously sulky ; and, 39 she lay half in a:d half
out of the water, her eye had a wicked glar in it
that was not pleasant to see. Without a paetical
knowledge of the animal, it is scarcely posible to
realise the difficulty and danger of the taskwhich

was so successfully performed. Under any circum-
stances, it is not easy to pick up a hippopatamus,
however young. It weighs somewhere about a hundred
pounds, and its skin is as slippery as if it had been
dipped in oil. Add to this that the floor of the den
is wet and smooth, offering scarcely any foothold;
that the young captive kicks and yells with all its
power; and that within a few feet is its infuriated
mother— and some idea may be formed of the feat
which was achieved on Wednesday last. Then, no
one who has not seen the hippopotamus in one of
her furies can appreciate the risk that is run by
any man who goes into the den. She is quick and
active beyond conception, flies about like lightning,
bellowing forth roar after roar and making the build-
ing tremble. On the present occasion her deafening
roars vlid good service; for they completely drowned
the cries of her young one, and enabled the keepers to
carry it off unheard as well as unseen. She can rear
herself on her hind legs in her attempts to get at a
supposed enemy; and when her weight of three tons
is brought to bear upon railings which are not too
strong, no small nerve is required in treating such an

Now let us follow the fortunes of the calf. It was
taken quite to the other end of the Gardens, that its
mother should not be able to hear its cries. Had she
done so, she would have tried to force her way to its
rescue, and it is very doubtful whether, in that case,
the iron bars of the den, or even ths wall of the build-
ing itself, could have withstood the shock of her recics
less charges. When comfortably housed, the little
animal was found to be suffering severely from cold,
and means were at once devised to restore
the proper temperature. Blankets were dipped
in boiling water wrung as dry as possible, and then
round the sufferer. Over the blankets was laid a thick
coat of cotton wool, and before very long Mr. Bartlett
had the pleasure of finding the heat of the body fairly
restored. Nourishment was the next business. At
first every offer was refused, but by degrees the calf
was induced to suck at an ingenious apparatus of india-
rubber and canvas attached to the mouth of a bottle
filled with warm milk. It was found necessary to
blind its eyes when the bottle was placed to its
lips, and to preserve absolute silence, for the little
creature was so sensitive that it would take no nourish-
ment so long as it could see a human being or hear the
sound of a human voice.... Thewarm milk seemed to
comfort the animal, and it soon quieted down and
slept.. . . It took about three pints of milk in six
hours, once imbibing nearly a pint at a time. Nothing,
however, could save it, and about seven p.m. of the
same day it died. Mr. Bartlett is of opinion
that there was some internal disease, as was the
case with its brother, which died last February... .

There is a comic element in most human affairs, and
this was furnished by the letters with which Mr.
Bartlett was inundated, all giving advice as to the best
mode of feeding the young calf. One correspondent
proposed that milk should he squirted at its mouth
from a syringe. Several suggested that the mother
should be chloroformed, and the calf removed while
she was insensible. Now, any one with the least
i knowledge of chloroform s aware that to place an
an animal under its influence is a matter of the
greatest difficulty. For example, some little tune
ago, when it was needful to put a tapir under chlo-
roform, the operation lasted for an hour, and re-
quired the combined efforts of Mr. Bartlett and six
assistants acting under the direction of the surgeons
though they had an apparatus which fitted on the
animal's head. As to chloroforming an hippopotamus,
it would be quite as easy to chloroform a whale. Yet
the correspondents—all anonymous—gave their advice
as if nothing could be easier. Chloroform the dam
and take away the cub," Perhaps the drollest of all
the suggestions was a scheme for burning brimstone in
the house until the mother should be stupefied, and
then removing the calf. How the calf was to be ren-
dered sulphur-proof, or how the keepers were to breathe
in an atmosphere which stupefies an hippopotamus,
were points which the writer did not elucidate.

Concluding this interesting paper, the writer incidentally
remarks

It is impossible to go behind the scenes, so to speak,
of such an establishment as the Zoological Gardens, and
to not admire the profound knowledge of beast nature—
the careful forethought, dauntless courage, and prompti-
tude of action which are shown by those who have to
keep within due bounds such ferocious and powerful
brutes. It is the triumph of Marl intellect over the
Instinct of the beast. Here we have one of the largest,
fiercest, worst-tempered, most powerful animals on
the face of the earth utterly conquered by a few
men, all of whom it could tear to pieces if it only knew
how strong it is and how weak they are. They employ
no weapons—they use no terrorism ; and yet this dread
beast is absolutely powerless in their unarmed hands.
So it is thoroughout the whole system. . . . . The
digiosition of every animal is carefully studied, and
the keeper tries, so far as he can, to place himself in
the mental position of his charge, and to anticipate
its thoughts. Violence is never used. It would not
only be futile at the time, but it would destroy all
hope of obtaining future obedience. As it is, the
animals find that in some .mysterious manner
they are continually obeying the will of their keeper,
and they get by degrees into a habit of obedience more
or less perfect, according to the nature of the particu-
lar species and the disposition of the individual.
Knowledge is power here. It is equally exercised over
the Largest and the smallest animals in the place; and,
whether the keeper be in charge of a harvest-mouse
which will scarcely balance a halfpenny in the scales,
of an elephant nine feet high, or an hippopotamus
weighing three tons, the human intellect equally
aaserts itself, and all equally acknowledge its sway.