The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-10-06
DOMEsTICATION OF zEBRAs.
Successful Drives in the British
East African PrOtectOrate.
From an Exchange.

EAST African PrOtectornte.
From an Exchange.
The Society of Arts in England pub
fishes in its journal, with permission,
report to the British Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs on the zebra
domestication experiments in the East
African Protectorate, by Robert ].
Stordy, veterinary officer to the Ugan-
da and East African Protectorate. Ex-
planning the stockade, or bona, for
the capture of the animals, Mr. Stor-
dy says that its construction employed
nifty hands for the space of nine weeks.
On the side of the river remote from
the bona it was considered necessary
| to build an arm of cut trees, to facili-
tate the driving of the zebra in the
direction of the ford. 1t was hoped
that upon the zebra entering the arm
capture would be effected as they
would be hemmed in between the arm
on the one side and a steep hill back
ed by the river with precipitous banks
on the other side, while the beaterS
behind would form Gordon from the
hill to the arm. Thus the only avail
able direction for the zebra to travel
would be toward the ford and the bo-
ma. couple of masts, so feet high,
were erected, one on the arm and the
informed that it was between these
two points that the animals must be
driven.
Arrangements were made for our
first zebra drive to take place on the
morning of the Sth of October last. A
body of 700 Nasal was gathered at
the Gilgil river by the collector Mr..
Macallister, on the evening of the 7th.
At sunrise next morning the drive was
Carried nlf aXaCfIW nc A
complete Gordon of heaters surround
ed the ground where the zebra had
so often been found grazing. AS the
line of heaters approached the open
plain near the river it was seen that
the Gordon Enclosed less than four
nerds of zebra, a total of nearly 300
head. As the Gordon closed in the
animals became panic-str1cken, and
one after another the four herds charg-
ed through the line of beaters with
an impetuosty that nothing could re-
slst. Our first attempt at capturing
wild animals, which had opened so
hopefully at daybreak, thus came to
disappointing close before 8 a. M
The arm, composed of cut trees on
the north side of the river, was in
creased in length from a quarter of
a mile to nearly two miles. Frequent
minor floods of the river deferred the
next drive till last month.
AS the river was then very low. ar
rangements were made for drive on a
larger scale than before 1t was honed
that 1,50O Nasal could be supplied from
the Nairobi district, in addition to the
few hundreds to be obtained locally. II
was expected that with this large in
crease in the number of beaters the
zebra would not attempt to break
through, as they did on the first occa-
sion. 1t was with considerable disap-
pointment that / heard the night before
the drive that no Nasal could be sent
from Nairobi. However, as all ar
rangements had been made, it was re-
solved to make an attempt next MORN
ing with the four or five hundred Nasal
who had been collected by Mr.. Wise
AS before, the beaters were collected
at the Gilgil river on the evening pre-
vious to the drive. Much was expected
from the six mounted Europeans. e.,
Messrs. Allen, Bagge, Collyer. Rout-
ledge, Story and myself, whose aim was
to keep the zebra on the run and al
low them no time to concert offensive
tactics Messrs. Archer and Salmon
on foot, took charge of the Nasal beat
ers.
A start was made at daybreak, and
the line of heaters Immediately put up
about 100 zebra and drove across the
plain toward the arm. AS they APP
preached it the herd, which, as usual,
was led by an old stallion, broke away
in the direction of the railway line and
actually got outside the Gordon. A piece
of fine riding by Mr.. Allen, ably sec
onded by Messrs. Bagge and Routledge,
resulted in the herd being headed back
again into the line of beaters. At the
far side of the plain 1 had managed to
drive a small herd of twelve or four
teen head into the arm, and II was my
endeavor to keep the herd within the
arm until the line of beaters had closed
up the entrance.
Our satisfaction may be imagined
when the large herd, which had been
headed back, got the wind of the small
herd and themselves entered the arm at
full gallop, closely pursued by the
horsemen and Nasal. AS they APP
preached the river they became sus-
picious and, returning at the gallon,
made final attempt to rush the beat
ers, but they were driven back with a
liberal expenditure of blank ammuni-
ton on the part of the Nasal irregulars
from Naivasha station. Turning around
they made straight for the ford, cross