Where the Lions and Tigers are Housed.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 443, 5 February 1890, Page 3

Where the Lions and Tigers are Housed.

Ik 1876 the present magnificent building known as the lion house was completed, and the lions and tigers were transferred to it. This is one of the finest and best arranged houses that have ever been constructed for the use of wild animals that come from a warm climate. The general temperature of the building can be maintained at a height suited to the requirements of the animals, while the warmth can be increased, if necessary, in their sleeping compartments..; There is an admirable arrangement by which the wild beasts can be let out into the large open, iron-framed cages on the north side of the building. Through the passage behind the dens there runs a raised tramway, along which an iron case or box, with doors at each end of it, can travel so as to form a tunnel over the passage, to enable any animal to pass from its ordinary den into the.open compartment outside. This tunnel case can be moved along the tramway from den to den, as occasion requires. The chief difficulty lies in giving a lion or tiger his first lesson in the use of the tunnel. At first he fears a trap or some unknown danger ; but when he has at last quietly stolen out into the open air, which seems to provide a chance of escape, though he may find his expectation of escaping frustrated, he soon learns the pleasure of the greater liberty and space afforded him, and he rolls on the ground in happiness, or stretches himself up against a tree, on which he cleans and sharpens his claws. He may sometimes be seen intently staring at some distant object. He has caught sight of a deer or an eland, and his natural love of the chase revives, though he takes little notice of the numerous human beings surrounding the cage. What can bo more beautiful than the pumas in the graceful positions which they assume in these open compartments —sometimes lying out on the branch of a tree so as to be almost invisible to the careless spectator, while others gambol together just like kittens ? Even the tigers, which are too often morose and ill at ease in their inside cages, seem to recover their spirits when they find the comparative liberty of the open-air compartment. We are assured that in the new lion house the health of the animals has greatly improved. Although they are now fed on Sunday and on every day of the week, their diet is limited, so that they can easily digest their food. The old jaguar presented many years ago by Lady Florence Dixie, looks so fat that he can hardly waddle about his cage. What a difference his clumsy form presents to that of the pumas or of the graceful leopards in the adjoining cages!— “Quarterly Review.”