The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-07-18
HOW WILD ANIMALS ARE CAPTURED.
The Romantic Story Of Carl Hagenbeck's AMI.
mal-Hunting Expedition Into the Wild
Parts Of the Earth.
By RAYMOND BLArHwAYr.
From PsarsOn's Magazine for July.

There is no greater or more expe-
rienced collector of wild animals than
Carl Hagenbeck, the celebrated ZOO
logical proprietor and trainer of wild
beasts in Hamburg. For years he
has been engaged in capturing, train
ing, and exhibiting animals Of every
description, and he is now about to
open wild beast garden in his native
town which will be absolutely origi-
nal from every point of view.
It is not my intention, however, to
deal with his plans for the future !;
rather l wish to give some idea of the
manner in which he captures, COL
lects, and brings home the beasts that
he exhibits in such profusion in Amer
lea and Europe.
It Is, of course, profession which,
while deeply interesting and extreme.
ly varied in its aspect, is nevertheless
always an extremely dangerous one.
But It IS LsJ one that POSSESSES }Ii 60F hiwea
WELD. 1t is also an extremely pre-
carious one; it involves great losses,
it brings now and again vast profits.
It necessitates the choice of the best
men to carry out its requirements
men with muscles of iron, hearts of
oak, and the digestion of the ostrich,
men who are Injured to all hardships
and to every climate, men who know
how to deal with the savage man, as
we'll as the savage animal.
I have said it involves great losses,
as well as now and again great gains.
I will give instances from Mr.. Hagen
beck's own career.
About year ago one of his collec-
tors brought home from Singapore FIVE
big snakes, one twenty-nine feet long,
another twenty seven feet, and the re-
mainder twenty-five feet. They sur
vived the voyage and reached Bremen
in perfect health. A sharp frost oc-
Cured that night, the night of the
day they were landed, and when they
were unpacked in Hamburg next
morning they were all dead. Away
went twenty-five hundred dollars
On another occasion Mr.. Hagen
beck had safely conveyed hippopo-
tamus to its home in Germany. The
next morning he discovered it dead
upon the floor of its cage, a loss
which meant something like four
thousand dollars. He has three of
his best men now capturing wild ami
mails in Central Asia. But every
thing that they touched last year
they lost-a loss amounting to ten
thousand dollars.
Three times he has lost fortune
in a month. Some months ago he
received news of his people in Russian
Turkeystan-that they had collected
a number of precious animals, when,
10 flood overwhelmed them near
Sirdarja, and swept away their deer,
their pheasants, and everything else.
On another occasion he had just
sold an east African collection of ami
mals-zebras, antelopes, rare birds,
and double-horned rhinoceros they
were taken i'll in the North Sea the
day before arrival, and all were dead
when the ship reached port.
But if there is bad luck in the cap
ture and collection of wild animals,
there is also much good fortune and
Hagenbeck has prospered on the
whole.
But, you will ask, how does he go
to work? How does he catch his
animals?
Well, his method is, of course,
most carefully thought out, and every
thing is based on experience.
He has certain special persons col
lecting in every part of the world,
and they have their own native staffs,
with power, also, to engage any NUM-
Der of men they may require.
Take, for instance, recent expedi-
ton that Hagenbeck sent to Mongolia
to capture wild horses. He engaged,
through his agents on the spot, nc
fewer than two thousand Mongolians.
Think of what that meant ! the or
ganizing of such vast body of men,
the disciplining of them, the payment
of them, which latter detail is inter.
esting when one learns that they
were paid in the currency of their
own country-s silver plates-and that,
over and above this, Hagenbeck gave
them sum of money to divide among
themselves. The currency also in
cluded compresse Jumps of Chinese
tea.
And how did these men go about
their work?
To begin with, they know well the