RAREST ANIMAL IN WORLD

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 171, 6 August 1937, Page 7

RAREST ANIMAL IN WORLD

Air Mail-

28,000 Miles for One Shpt FINE SPECIMEN

(By

— Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, July 10. A gigmt papda, whieh a man went 28,000 miles to shoot, ia now on canvas for Londoners to see. The panda is the rarest animal in tte world. The portrait of it— in oils —at Mrs. Colmore 's exbibition in the Arlington j3alleries is also the only one of its kind in existence, Mrs. Colmore tell3 how she painted her pisture from the slrin of a panda shot by Captain H. C, Broclslehurst, a disjfnnt pelative, "Instead of the ffkin being stuSed and mounted firpt and then a portrait Jbeing painted we reversed that proeesgj^ Bhe said. "I just had the shin to go by, and a photograph of the dead enimal taken by Captain Brophleharst phortly after he shot it. ' * Captain" Broehlehurst alsp ha^ some magnifieent photographs of the local ■ceaery ta help ma wlth the bpqk* ground and he wp^ able to give me nome help and advice on matiere pf colour. In thip yvay I was able to build np the fiaished picturp." The Ptory pf hpw Captain Brocklehprsf obtained his specimen— the first ever shot by a.n Englishman — is a thrilling pne. Ho left London in 1934 for the "Lost Triangle,11 ja corner of North, Wppt China, near the Tibetan border. To "treaeh |his far-pff home of the pandn— a large mountain bear-r-he had to steam 1600 miles - up the Yangtse River and then tramp overland a further '500 miles and cllmb nearly 13,000 feet to the snow regions pf the mpuntainp, Here after weeks pf searching, with only native potters and guidqs for cqmpapions he at last pamo paross the sppof of a pftndq, and followed it into 0 dense thieket of bambpq thorn, Bnddenly he spw a 7ft. specimen staripg at him nqf twenty yards awny, Seixing hjf he scfjfimhled S°r" warg" and at thp last'' moment, when it geemed thftt his chancp pf a ?hot wpuld be gppiled by his dog dashing fojrward aiiid barking, the panda tuniand hP wn§ able to kill it with a single ghot in the neck. jgp had travelled 28,000 miles for that pne shot, but with. it had secured thp ^nppt specimen on record, Cijitain. Brocklehurst was for many years Came Warden of the Sudan, and while there guided the (then) Prince of Wales, the Duke of York and the Entl and Countess of Athlone on their ■af&ris, The panda, which is found in no oiaer parfc of the world but the Tibet* ea border, is white except for a, re« markable black saddle whjch runs pver its shoulderg and down its forelegs tq the toes. The hind legs and pars are o|eq black, pnd black pstches round its eyes hava eafned for it the alternative sime pf. spectacled b§ar« Jt Uves exciusively on bamboo. Since Captain Brooklehnrst'a expeditioa Mrs. W- H, Bftrkness, an American, ha> gucceeded in c&pturing alive a baby panda and tmasportipg it safpijr to hp Bnited §tates. ^