You’d
better take the circus in
And see all you can see,
Especially
the animals,
Because you know that he
Is
out there in the jungle yet
And happy as can be;
And
if he keeps his gate bime by
There won’t be none to see.
c.
June 2, ‘09
The Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition was an
expedition to Africa led by Theodore
Roosevelt and outfitted by the Smithsonian Institution. Its
purpose was to collect specimens for the Smithsonian's new Natural History
museum, now known as the National Museum of Natural History. The
expedition collected around 11,400 animal specimens which took Smithsonian
naturalists eight years to catalog.
The figure of 11,400 refers to items collected, of which over
half were botanical specimens and most of the rest small rodents, bats and
insectivores which were intended to provide records of species diversity in the
regions explored for the Smithsonian scientific collections. The larger animals
shot by Theodore and Kermit Roosevelt are listed on pages 457 to 459 of his
book African Game Trails. The total is 512, of which 43 are birds. The
number of big game animals killed, was 17 lion, 3 leopard, 7 cheetah,
9 hyena, 11 elephant, 10 buffalo, 11 (now very rare) black rhino and 9 White
rhino. Most of the 469 larger non big game mammals included 37 species and
subspecies of antelopes. The expedition consumed 262 of the animals which were
required to provide fresh meat for the large number of porters employed to
service the expedition. Tons of salted animals and their skins were shipped to Washington,
D.C.; the quantity took years to mount them all, and the Smithsonian
shared many duplicate animals with other museums. Regarding the large
number of animals taken, Roosevelt said, "I can be condemned only if the
existence of the National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History,
and all similar zoological institutions are to be condemned."
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