The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-01-29
He Has Been Hunted Almost into His
Last Haunts.
SOME OF THE HABITS OF THE
GENTLE ANIMAL.
Needs No More Water Than Camel and
Has Very Curious Gallop-Hide Is an
Inch Thick, but the Flesh La Good
Eating, Despite Musky Odor.
(From the London Times. }


The untimely andlsmost regrettable
death of the young South African giraffe
which lately reached England serves
again to remind us of the increasing
scarcity of these animals and of the i'm
mense difficulties which attend their
capture. 1t is remarkable fact that
until the year 1895 no living giraffe had
ever reached Europe from South Africa.
The old stock, so long familiar in the
Geological Society's Gardens, were de-
scended from animals captured in Kor-
dofan by M. Thibaut, French trader
in the Soudan, as far back as 1884. These
North African giraffes breed freely in
captivity, and the last of this stock died
recently as 1892. In 1895 the Geological
Society was fortunate enough to purchase
a young female opatured by Boer hunters
in Southeast Africa. This animal has
thriven remarkably, and it was confident
ly hoped TINT its union with the young
male which has just died would result in
the reproduction OF fresh family of
these strange and interesting animals.
Throughout Europe giraffes have been of
late years, thanks principally to the clo-
sing OF the Soudan trade routes by the
Mahdi's adherents, extremely scarce, and
the supply in other parts Of Africa is
without doubt being depleted rapidly and
surely year by year. Even in the further
Soudan these animals are being gradual
~ exterminated.
Giraffe hide-which in the mature ami
mails attains thickness of at least an
inch upon the upper parts--is commodi-
ty eagerly sought after by all natives
south and north of the equator. From
it are fashioned sandals, shields, and
whips, and the demand for it is, owing
to the determination of the rhinoceros
and hippotamus, rapidly increasing. In
South Africa the value of the skin of a
full-grown bull giraffe Is, at the present
time, even far up country, about e5, and
to secure this reward large numbers of
giraffes, wherever these animals are plen
tiful, are annually slain, principally to
supply the constant demand for siamboks
il. e., colonial rawhide whips. 1t is
within the writer's knowledge that quite
recently during two seasons hunting,
not less than 800 giraffes have been shot
by native hunters near Lake Ngami.
That slaughter, within a limited dis
trict, represents naturally only small
portion of the determination which is,
month by month and week by week, go
ing forward in the African continent.
Not until firearms and horses were in
troduced into Africa did the present Ia
mentable period of determination set in.
Native Africans, with their own primi-
tive weapons-spears and bows and ar
rows-made little impression on the
numbers of these stately quadrupeds.
Even in the pitfalls and hopos, once SO
abundant in the interior of South Afri-
ca, few giraffes were taken as compared
with other ouadrupeds. But as soon as
breechloading rifles, and especially hunt
ing horses, appeared the gigantic mann.
NAL became almost surely doomed TO ex-
tinction. Even with the modern rifle the
European on foot finds it difficult to ap-
proach and stalk snch shy and suspicious
game as giraffes. Moreover, in the great
er part of those regions of Southern At
RIGA in which these creatures are now to
be found the country is almost entirely
waterless,a and the foot hunter has no
possible chance of attaining his purpose.
In the northern part of the Ealahari Des-
ert for instance, where large numbers OF
giraffes still roam, it is impossible to ap-
proach these animals except on horseback,
and then only with great difficulty. Gil
RATES. have the faculty, in common with
several of the antelopes, such as the Gland
and gemsbok, of Icing able to support
life for long periods without touching
water. For this reason, in their last
southern stronghold-the North Kalahair
-giraffes have thus far been able to re-
sist utter extinction. But with the aid
of horses and water carts considerable
portions of this vast, water ess tract OF
country are now being rendered accessl-
Bile to hunters, and even there giraffes
are gradually being swept from existence.
The Kalahari is not by any means a
sheer desert. 1t lacks surface water, but
much of its flat yet elevated expanse is
covered with great forests of giraffe
acacia and other timber, bush, and excel
lent grasses. Gradually all this country
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