HomeMy WebLinkAboutTexas A&M ZooTexas A&M Zoo
Founded about 1920, the Texas A&M zoo was located across the railroad
tracks from the west gate of campus. At one time it housed such diverse
animals as lions and tigers, an elephant, an ostrich, as well as a
variety of North American animals. The college closed the zoo in 1926.
(Dethloff, Henry C., A Centennial History of Texas A&M University
1876-1976, volume 2, page 407).
The three elk which arrived at the feeding and breeding station
yesterday are a very rare and valuable addition to the collection of
animals that is being made here for the establishment of a zoological
park for the pleasure of College people, College visitors and also for
educational purposes in connection with the regular college work. Other
shipments of elk are to follow these and eventually quite a herd will be
collected. A number will also be consigned to the college and shipped
to substation No.14 at Sonora, Tex., to be herded in the pastures there.
The conditions of the rough broken country there are very similar to
the native haunts of the elk in the northern states from whence they are
being shipped and they are expected to thrive well which will mean that
in time a large herd will be raised there. This is one of the aims of
the National Park commission in sending the animals this far south.
Because of the severity of the northern winters the animals are
migrating south, depredating on the pastures and cultivated fields of
the farms and cattle raisers inhabiting the districts visited by the
them, and as a consequence the animals have been killed in such great
numbers that those interested in the preservation of the type have
become fearsome of their extinction and are taking steps to place
numbers of them in districts conducive to their growth, and under the
care of interested raisers. For the present the three which arrived
yesterday will be kept at the feeding and breeding station where they
may be seen by those interested in viewing them. Chester A. Lindsley,
superintendent of the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, was the
consigner of these three. There are several other animals at the
station, rare sights in this section of the country which are to be
added to the zoo. There is a female black bear safely caged in a den
nearby. She was presented to the college by the city park commission
from their zoo at McMinnville, Oregon, secured through the efforts of
J.C. Cooper, president of the Western Walnut association of that city,
who is a personal friend of Director B. Youngblood. The same commission
attempted to make a gift of two deer but through their untamed wildness
they were both killed while being crated for shipment. In the pasture
just north of the F. and B. station are two buffalo, a male and a
female, a present of Col. Chas. Goodnight from the famous Goodnight
ranch at Goodnight, Tex. Originally there were three but one of them
died after arrival here. There is a herd of four deer. Two of them
were given by F.D. Lown, county agent of LaSalle County. The others are
a gift from the Hon. Ray Lambert, city park commissioner of San Antonio,
Tex. He is also the donor of one javeline (Mexican hog). It was
matched by another given by W.M. Clarkson, a prominent farmer and
ranchman of Robstown, Tex. They have both died since their arrival here
some months ago. The donors have signified their intention of replacing
them with others. Hon. W.G. Sterrett, state fish, game and oyster
commissioner, has donated a number of beautiful pheasants, partridges
and quail of different types, which are being cared for by Prof. T.J.
Conway at the poultry farm. Dabney White, president of the Texas
Ginners Association and editor of the Tribune at Tyler, Tex., has
promised a donation of three deer to be sent here sometime in the near
future. The location for the zoo has been selected as the present
orchard site enclosed by the heavy wire fence just west of the H. & T.C.
railroad on the road to the poultry farm of the school of agriculture.
The site will be beautified by the erection of building ornaments of
various kinds, including an artificial lake of beautiful plan. All the
zoological animals now at the college will be removed to permanent
quarters at this location in the near future, or as soon as arrangements
preliminary to their accommodation can be carried out. President
Bizzell is very enthusiastic in the promotion of plans to make this the
best collection of rare animals in this section of the country, and has
done a great deal of hard work in securing these. Director B.
Youngblood has also devoted much time and effort to the project as well
as other members of the experiment station staff. Bryan Weekly Eagle,
29 January 1920, page 1
College Station, Texas, March 30 -Two civit cats were received at
the College Zoo the first of the week. They are the gift of the father
of H.K. Fawcett and were sent here from Fawcett's home at Del Rio.
President Bizzell viewed them soon after arrival and expressed great
pleasure in their ownership which he considers as quite an addition to
the zoo. Bryan Weekly Eagle, 31 March 1921, page 1
College Station, Texas, Dec. 10 -The A.& M. College of Texas will
receive a pair of elk from the Yellowstone National Park herd as an
addition to the zoological collection of animals now in the possession
of the College. President W.B. Bizzell is in receipt of information
from the acting director of the park in Washington to the effect that
the acting superintendent of the park has been instructed to capture the
animals and ship them to College Station. Promise of a black bear as a
mate to one already possessed by the College also has been made by the
park management, but since the bears have gone into winter quarters it
is not expected that one can be captured until spring. The elk are
expected to be shipped in the near future. Dallas Morning News, 11
December 1921, page 6.
College Station, Texas, Oct. 21 -Through an arrangement made by
officials of the United States Biological Survey with President W.B.
Bizzell, several animals from the college zoo were shipped to Waco,
where they will be shown in an exhibit that the survey officials will
have at the Texas Cotton Palace for instructing people of the rodents
and predatory animals that are detrimental to live stock and garden and
field crops. The animals shipped from here were three prairie dogs, two
Arizona hawks, two owls, three coyotes and two foxes. Dallas Morning
News, 22 October 1922, page 14
College Station, April 1 - An eight-foot alligator, an excellent
example of the most hideous monstrosity in the animal kingdom was given
temporary domicile in the Zoological Garden lake yesterday afternoon in
a ceremony of immersion attended by President W.B. Bizzell, Walter W.
Kraft, Captain C.O. Watkins, T.P. Smith and several others in Mr.
Kraft's department. The creature was captured in the Cedar Creek
bottom near Kurten on Monday by a group of fishermen in that community
and was proffered as a donation to President Bizzell's zoo in a
telephone call to Mr. Kraft yesterday. After improvising a crate
yesterday morning Mr. Smith went in a truck to bring the animal in. He
was found staked by a rope in a small pasture lake near the Kurten
school house where his captors had taken him. The school children were
dismissed by J.J. Kasiske, teacher, to witness the feat of crating and
loading the monster. The captors and donors are Ernest and Fritz Wiese,
Robert Lange, Ernest Schmahl, Otto Lockstedt and Will Metzger. They
were quite willing to make the donation to the College and seemed
pleased that their offer was accepted. Had they seen the attitude of
President Bizzell's reception on the arrival of the fine specimen,
they would have had no doubt of the welcome with which their gift was
received. This gives a family of three alligators of the zoo. The
latest addition is twice the size of the largest one previously owned,
however. Bryan Daily Eagle, 1 April 1925, page 3
The College Zoo is in receipt today of an 8-foot, 2-inch alligator as a
gift from a number of men who caught the amphibian in Tantraugh Lake, in
the Cedar Creek vicinity, above Kurten, on Sunday, March 29. The animal
was hauled into Bryan on a College truck and was being taken to the A.
and M. Zoo today. The men who made the capture of the reptile and who
made the donation to the College are: Ernest and Fritz Wiese, Robert
Lange, Ernest Schmahl, Otto Lockstedt and Will Metzee. Bryan Weekly
Eagle, 2 April 1925, page 7
College Station, May 13 -Two timber wolves caught in the wild
country about 20 miles northeast of Franklin, in Robertson County, by
government trappers, have been secured for the A. & M. College Zoo.
They were donated to President W.B. Bizzell. T.L. Smith, employee of
the College, went there in a truck and transported them here. W.E. Shaw
was the trapper who caught the prize on the W.C. Crane place.
Assistance in moving the animals was given by R.B. Ewing, agricultural
agent of the county. Bryan Weekly Eagle, 14 May 1925, page 1