WILD BEASTS' LEAPS.

Matamata Record, Volume II, Issue 99, 26 September 1918, Page 4

WILD BEASTS' LEAPS.

When Herr Carl Hagenbeck, tht famous animal trainer, was building his zoological park at Stellingen, in Germany, he decided to employ a novel method to keep the carnlvora within safe bounds and yet give them almost entire liberty. He therefore built for them what he called glens, where they would have plenty of shelter, but where they would be free to roam about at their own will. Then he surrounded the carnivora gorge with a trench or chasm, very deep, and too wide for any of the beasts to leap across. He also so screened the trench with bushes and plants that the visitors to the park would not see the chasm. To ascertain how far these animal* were able to leap he devised the plan of fixing a stuffed pigeon to the projecting branch of a tree. Then in turn he released lions, tigers, and panthers Into the enclosure where stood the tree. The Instant the anli mals saw the pigeon they exerted themselves to the utmost to reach It. Thus he found that the tigers and! Hoii3 could barely jump six feet six inches, while the panther could just Teach the branch at a height of ten feet. Herr Hagenbeck tested the broadJumping powers of the beasls in a similar manner, but hs used animals •which had had some training and •which were more adept at jumping than other beasts of the same species. He found that panthers could barely cover ten feet in a standing jump, and that when they had a running ■start they could jump at most thirteen or fourteen feet. Tigers also jumped ten feet from a standing start, and on the raining jump were able to maks several feet more. In his great animal park Hagenbeck considered it to be entirely safe te surround the quarters of his carilvorous beasts with a trench twenty* eight feet wide. While the animals might take a long run before they leapt, any attempt to jump the trencb would cause them to fall into thi <&»flths of the chasm. - "