The Coconino weekly sun., 1895-05-23
THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT.
A Plea for the Rehabilitation of the Anl.
 nal by the Germans.

Flea for the Rehabilitation of the Ani-
 nal by the Germans.
 Germany, which feels the want of a reliable beast of burden in her East African territory more than England, seems to have resolved on the redomes- tication of the African elephant Some time ago German officer commenced series of visits to the Indian "ked- dahs," and, after mastering so far as possible the Indian methods and sys- tenn of catching and training wild ele. phants, has hired staff of experienced Indian catchers and trainers, and is to establish n government elephant stud" in German East Africa. Com menting on the chances of the success of this enterprise Mir. Carl Hagenbeck, proprietor of the geological gardens at Hamburg and New York, has contrib uted an interesting article to the Ham burger Nachrichten.
 MT. Hagenbeck's paper takes the form of plea for the preservation of the African elephant. But with him preservation is merely the necessary preliminary to their redomestication, for the probable success in which he gives reasons which should be very en- couraging to those now pledged to the undertaking. Mir. Hagenbeck writes with authority on the subject. Out of two hundred African elephants brought to Europe in recent years he has imported one hundred and seventy, and many of these have remained in his geological gardens at Hamburg and in America. With the histories of the rest since they passed into other hands he is perfectly familiar. He was re- gently able to tell the present writer the exact number of African elephants, and the owner of each, in the different countries of Europe; and he has a national insight into the ways and means of animal domestication. He gives it as his opinion that the general belief that African elephants are not so strong as, are wilder, and less easily tanned, and possess less endurance than, the Indian species, is wrong" He maintains, on the contrary, that they are stronger, and at least as
 
 burden or to be ridden as Indian ele- plants; and he claims to have con- vinced the Berlin Geographical society that this view was correct, as early as 1878, when he had number of African elephants in that city.
 It will be quite sufficient for practical purposes if part only of these antici- pations are realized. If the African elephant can be trained and made an obedient slave, it will be a factor of enormous importance in district where the tsetse fly stops all animal carriage, and where for generations human-that is, slave-transport has been the sole means of conveying goods from the interior to the coast. The African elephant may well answer this purpose without becoming such | mar vel of intelligence and docility as his Indian relative. Moreover, he is not only as strong, but far stronger in mere physique than the Indian, the males being, on an average, two feet and the females one foot higher than the Asiatic species. Whether they have quite the same massive dray-horse build may be doubted; but for most purposes they would probably be even more servicea- ble as beasts of burden, and the ques- tion of general constitution would hardly arise in the case of animals used in their own country, as these would be in the German colonies.- London Spectator.