AN ANIMAL FREAK.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 September 1925, Page 4

AN ANIMAL FREAK.

(By ('. best oek Reid. F.R.G.S.) Wildebeest,. or blue gnu. a parti culnrly large .specimen of vdia ii tU IVi nee -hot in .Smith Africa, arc muon;, the most curious-looking beasts in erea • tion. Ti'v late ‘.'apt ain Selous, Hi famous big-game hauler. describe. them as having ‘‘the bead of a buffalo Hie tail of a hnr.-e. and the hooves o an aii I elope.” and, lie might have ad (led. U'e solemnity of an owl. Hie uo-i of a Roman, and Hie heard of u goat an ensemble which, coupled with ar elephant ie -kit I i-huie-.- give- a remarkably foHl-li off'i'ci. Yet wililiheestc. like many others, are mil ,-ncli fouls a- they look. They owe their reputation oartl.v to their voices, which are like the (making of a gigantic frog, but i•lli* ■f I \ to their inqiiisitivi'iies-. which often causes a whole herd to gallop up and inspect the very man who i- intending to shn.ii them much to the letter's snti-fac-i ion.

Bui this is olnetiy in misliol conntries. Once they are shot at thoii faculty of sensing and avoiding tin cleverest nmluish is phenomenal. Nor are they as i luni-y as they look, though. 1 once saw n herd gallop tlou'ii a slope in which there was a .-mall hank, and every individual, so far as 1 could see. landed on hi- nose : which, though it may imply hard-noseil-ness. doe- not -eotn to argue siiriTootodness. On the other hand, when they really get going it takes a good horse to live with them, as the Princes seems to have found; and, playing among themselves, as tliev love to do with many buckings, kicking.-, and tail-whiskings, they are extrnordinarilv Quick at turning.

I Wildebecste have always been reckI oned very dangerous. Why. I could never discover. For their horns are very light and the dauntless courage of the buffalo is lacking. I have myself been unarmed in the middle ot a panic-stricken herd and not only got away unscathed, but never looked like being anything cl-o. Had it been buffalo tid- article would never have been written. Gnu are found nearly all over Africa. But their particular paradise i- the marvellous extinct crater of Ngorongoro. in Tanganyika, where, in a natural game-pit some twelve miles in diameter and surrounded by cliffs 2,000 ft. high, upwards of forty thousand wildheeste graze and play in toe

untrammelled freedom of forgotten centuries. Long may civilisation leave them to it.