The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1904-03-17
THE WAYS OF GIRAFFEs.

Hard Beasts to Catch, Transport and
Keep Alive in the Menagerie.
There is one order that I never like
to FILL" said, the old animal collector,
cor. rather. / would like to fill it we'll
enough, but never expect to do SO
without a vast amount of trouble and
risk. That order is one for a live
giraffe.
Lions and gorillas and tigers and
pythons are nothing to catch as COM
pared with a giraffe. The long-legged,
long-necked beast can see, smell ana
hear a hunter miles away. And it is a
perfect loon for getting into a panic; so
when a herd smells danger, off it will
dash, each animal with its crazy neck
thrust out away ahead Of it, holding its
head below the shoulders. so that 1t
won't strike tree branches.
Nothing in the world can kick up
such fuss as fleeing herd of giraffes
Their long legs don't, move in a
straight line like those of a deer or a
horse, for instance. If CRATES We're to
race along with their feet as those of
other animals, they would topple over.
u he liilllEiiSCly le1ii SAkdlAC must 10 w
a big base. Consequently, its legs
spread far apart when it runs, so that
they cover the base of a great pyramid,
the top of which is formed by the hum
ped shoulder. Now imagine herd of a
dozen Or more, each with those ridicul-
Gus legs sticking out to all four corners,
and all in full wild. blind flight. driven
by terror to tear through woods and I'M
derbrush and morass and over sand and
rock, and then you will have something
like picture OF what giraffe hunting is.
Now, you can't catch big clumsy
beast like that in a pitfall. The giraffe
needs so much room to move that it
would be certain to break its legs or
neck if it tunahled into a pit. There is
no trap, of course, that would do A
trap powerful enough to hold the strong
beast would crunch it's delicate legs like
pipe stems when it closed on them.
so there Is only one way to catch
CRATES alive and ii mighty hard way 1t
is
They must be surrounded by drivers
and chased until they bring up weary
and helpless. in an Enclosure made Of
netting and bamboo. That means a
drive Of many miles, lasting many days,
for even IL the animal could be driven
faster it would never do to drive them
into the Enclosure in the first rush Of
their terror. They would dash headlong
into it and kill themselves.
$50 we must hire a great army Of men
and then, when the giraffes are sighted,
we must surround them at so great a
distance that the animals look only like
specks on the plain. To go any nearer
would mean to alarm and lose them.
Now, of course, the men who have
to work around them so as to complete
the circle have to travel Immensely long
distances In order to get on the other
side Of the herd without being seen or
smeled. 1t may require two days be-
fore the signals tell the waiting hunters
that the circle is complete.
Then begins the drive. closing in
very, very carefully, to make sure there
shall be no break in the ranks to let the
beasts slip through.
''If the heaters and drivers come to a
hill or stream or thick forest, they cam
not go around it, but must go straight
through everything, for if they tried to
go around the giraffes might come that
way and force their bodies through the
thicket or wade the water.
This hunting is terrible piece OF
business in itself. But after the
CRATES are safely penned in, the
hardest work has only begun. That is
| to transport the beasts over 500 or more
miles Of primeval wilderness to the
nearest seaport.
MEN have tried all kinds of ways to
do this, even to driving the great
brutes. But that doesn't pay The ris,
of accident is too great. I prefer to de
it the old fashioned way and to pen the
animals in a bamboo cage open at the
| top so that their shoulders and necks
can stick out. Then the cage LIS dashed
to great bamboo poles from twenty tC
thirty feet long. AS many natives al
possible lift the four ends to thei
shoulders and off goes Mr.. Giraffe on {
free ride to the ocean.
zone. collector that know tried tn,
expedient of building cage without ;
bottom around his giraffes. TO this HI
flashed the usual bamboo poles, ant
when his natives lifted them to thei
shoulders. the cage slipped up, leaving
the giraaffe's feet ON the ground. Hi
idea was that the giraffes would b.
forced to trot along with the natives
1.-The idea didn't seem SO bad, but thu
CRATES had minds of their own, ant
1 two of them tried to bolt as soon as tn,
cages were lifted. The result was s
lmixed-up lot of bearers and two giraffe'
| with broken legs.
1.-THE giraffe's leg breaks on Sigh
proyocation. This is the ever-presen
danger all the way to the coast. Blu
when port is reached, it becomes still
more grave for it is in bringing thu
animal aboard ship and during TIL
storms of a voyage that the collecto
may expect every moment, that hi
precious property will slip. And if /
Cling and roaS down in it's marrow