Contributions
68
Zoology,
to
SPB Academic
67-71
(I)
(1998)
Amsterdam
Publishing bv,
Short notes and reviews
On
mounted skeleton
a
melanochaita
P.J.H.
of apparently the extinct
Panthera
Cape Lion,
(Ch. H. Smith, 1842)
Bree
van
Zoological Museum, University of Amsterdam,
P.O. Box
1090 GT
94766,
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Museum Vrolik
Keywords: Cape Lion, Panthera leo melanochaita. study of skeleton and painting,
Abstract
The
ing
Recently,
in
the skeleton
the Zoological
The history
its
of the
of apparently
specimen
some measurements
same animal in
and the
aparte
taken
and manes’
the
painting
as
far
Cape
Lion
known
as
from the
belonged
discovered
Amsterdam.
is summarized
on an
and the
Louis
King
Napoleon ordered
moval of all
the animals and
of the
animal
Bon-
Napoleon
There the animals
put temporarily
in the
“Trippenhuis”,
which
would become the
and skeleton
study
time
there
quite
some
skeleton of
a
sterdam.
has been
large lion (reg.
the collections of the
In that
the national
the state
nr
mounted
a
710) kept in
ZMA
Museum in Am-
Zoological
plants
housed in the
greenhouse
garden; the plants
garden
of
the
was
were
large house, the
a
of what later
seat
Recently the skeleton
under
came
scru-
be
1996).
When alive, the lion formed
of
part
travelling
a
same
emperor
year,
the Netherlands.
of the
1808
century.
July
King
the Netherlands
pied by
the French, ordered that the collection of
animals
nucleus
like the
of
should
Alpy
of
a
one
being
be
bought
menagerie he wanted
time
form
to
to
occu-
The
the
have, just
in Paris in the Jardin des Plantes
merly named Jardin du Roi).
two
at that
(for-
animals, among
lionesses and the lion under discussion,
brought
to
Palace
Soestdijk
few months removed to
Haarlem.
Botanical
otic plants
It
was
an
Baarn and after
estate
near
the town
also intended to establish
Garden there and for
were
at
that
a
Royal
purpose
purchased (see Evers,
1941).
ex-
also housed
would become
Am-
in
was
went
to
(sub)tropical plants could
On
under
10 June
menagerie;
1810,
on
of his
pressure
2
the
July
brother
Napoleon Bonaparte, he abdicated and left
remainder of
poleon,
was
Academy of
Rijksmuseum,
decided to dissolve the
during the beginning
Louis Na-
that the
so
that toured the Netherlands
In
building
same
art museum, the
animal show under the
management of Antoine Alpy
19th
Royal
placed in the greenhouse.
of the
(Van Bree & Welman,
Netherlands
collection, which
art
empty barracks,
known
a
re-
to Amsterdam.
During winter 1809/1810 the animals
king
of
King
1809 the
May
sterdam.
tiny and the whole history of the object became
were
were
of the town’s botanical
Sciences.
them
22
on
were
of Holland.
History
For
the animals
as
installed at Haarlem, the rather fickle
properly
Louis
enlarged by buy-
was
other collections. Just
and
study of
oil painting
Amsterdam. Both the
to
menagerie of the king
some
is elucidated with
skeleton
development
was
of
University
melanochaita
Rijksmuseum
once
a
of the
Museum
attribution to Panthera leo
fur colours
leo
sent
Finally
King
to Paris.
on
Louis
30
September 1810 the
Napoleon’s
The lions
were
menagerie
already dead by
then.
During
dam,
the time the
Gerardus Vrolik
medicine and
was
a
botany
was
(1775-1859),
at
in Amster-
professor of
the Athenaeum Illustre,
human
very
parts
early
and
in
at
1809 and
the
menagerie.
life,
same
The
professor
a
lion, which
died between
paper,
of the animal for his
time
He started
consisting of prepared
zoological objects.
subject of this
August
garden and
co-director of the
museum
is the
was
member of the board of the Hortus Botanicus,
the town’s botanical
he
menagerie
May and
Vrolik obtained the
museum.
The
museum
body
“Mu-
P.J.H.
68
Fig.
!. Mounted skeleton
Zoological
seum
Museum
Vrolikianum”
his son,
by
known
Willem
Vrolik
were
Cape Lion,
L.A.
Panthera
enlarged considerably
Willem
private
Vrolik
museum
and became
in
Europe
at
raised and in
1863 and it looked like
1865 the collection
ists,
given
to
the
Atheneum Illustre
sity
of
Amsterdam)
collection
came
town
(the
was
of Amsterdam
precursor
and the
of the
for
zoological part of
into possession of the
its
Univerthe
Zoological
Society “Natura Artis Magistra”, founded in 1838.
This
society
administered
a
seum
zoological
and
a
zoo, which
still
On the extinct
museum,
In that year the
came
ex-
In
(Smit,
Cape
Lion
the collection
of the
ethnographical
zoological
initiative
exposition
king.
It
of
a
van
Os
(1776
-
painting of the male lion from
of the
King
the artist
was
1939.
university’s Zoological
king
to
the
modern art in the Netherlands. That
an
its
collections be-
museum
1808, the Dutch painter P.G.
menagerie
museum,
society’s collection until
of the
mu-
1892 the Amsterdam
1988).
1839) submitted
the
own
society’s
officially part
Museum
an
When in
library.
a
University started its
purchased from the heirs. All the medical objects
were
-
(Ch. H.Smith, 1842) in
staff also curated the
1865).
died in
leo melanochaita
Bree
der Laan.
van
would have to be dissolved. However,
museum
funds
extinct
Photograph by
was
professor
the best
as
the time (Dusseau,
the
of apparently the
Amsterdam,
van
Louis
Napoleon.
donated the
incorporated
in
exposition
exposition
the
After
painting
state
art
to
of
was
the
the
collec-
Contributions
Fig.
2.
Painting
to
Zoology, 68 (1)
of the male
lion in
now
(see
in the
1998
the menagerie
tion, which after
being housed
is
-
at
69
of King Louis
several
places,
Rijksmuseum (of art) in Amsterdam
Fig. 2). Only recently
we
have become
aware
Napoleon by
that
same
P.G,
van
Os. Collection
the skeleton
and
the
Rijksmuseum
painting
Amsterdam.
pertain
to
the
animal.
After examination of the
painting
of the lion,
70
P.J.H.
Fig.
3.
with
How
its
black
probably
manes,
mal could be
a
suspicion
the
particular
we
skull
ied almost
all
subspecies,
Eastern
studied in
most
The skull
difficult
column
by
1960-
He studmuseums
of this extinct
the vast
interior that lie
plains of
west of the
the
Great
1975). The subspe-
(Mazak,
probably exterminated around 1850.
to
a
study.
It is
are
jaw is
taken,
attached
dried tendon (see
connected
to
Fig.
but
the
spinal
1) and skull
by dried tissue. Also
attached to the skull
Therefore accurate
not be
detail.
of the Amsterdam mounted skeleton
and vertebrae
the lower
in
specimens
which lived in
years
Cape Lions.
good description
a
Escarpment
was
its
the ani-
of the late Czechoslova-
the extant
South African
sue.
that
Mazak,
and
manes
arose
were
know much about
and furnished
is
life. After
zoologist Vratislav Mazak in the
1970,
cies
in
Cape Lion. Therefore the skeleton
Thanks to the studies
kian
looked
long dark-coloured chest
belly
and in
Lion
the Cape
length
by dried tis-
measurements
nevertheless
some
other
can-
meas-
Bree
van
On the extinct
-
Cape Lion
1968.
could
urements
breadth
107
be ascertained.
rostral
mm,
length of nasals 96
268
externus
244
mm,
mm, interorbital
112
measurements
Although
a
missing,
skull of
acusticus
73
breadth
bizygomatic
mm,
a
see
Cape
Mazak,
Lion. In
Fig.
too
was
a
1) is
high
large
mm,
breadth
height
(for the definitions of these
number of
(it stands
the animal
mm
1975:
40).
important
those that could be
skeleton (see
way
mm,
rostral
greatest
mastoid breadth 142 mm,
greatest
of mandible
are
wit:
mm, prosthion-meatus
breadth 58
postorbital
To
88
depth
spite
measurements
taken point to
mounted in
on
one.
its
a
of the fact that the
an
unnatural
legs), it is clear that
Measured with
a
tape,
the distance from the anterior border of the nasals
over
skull
the skull,
over
the tendon that connects
with the neural
spines
the last caudal vertebra,
256
one
of the
the
vertebrae till
arrives at
a
length of
cm.
Taking into
account the very
dark coloured chest
Contributions
and shoulder
the
to
68
Zoology,
manes
(1)
and the black
men
one
is
most
probably
a
Cape
In addition
melanochaita.
manes,
conclusion that the
the
to
comes
belly
dimensions of the
size of the animal, and the
skull,
71
1998
-
speci-
Lion, Panthera leo
a
Lion. The mounted skeleton is the second
Cape
Lion
Cape
Zoological
in
of the Amsterdam
the collection
Museum. The first one,
has been described and
a
mounted skin,
pictured by Mazak
in
1975.
circumstantial evidence
should be taken into account. First, till the middle
of the
19th century
rope either
Cape. Only
came
the
in Eu-
only lions arriving
from North Africa
East Africa and India. In view of the
from
or
after that time did lions also
come
the
from
painting
References
it is
Bree
PJH
Dusseau
clear that the lion under discussion is not
Lion, Panthera leo leo (Linnaeus,
the
Cape
was
18th century
regularly
in the
V
1795
till
living
a
from
Zoo
described
instance
of Stadtholder Prince William
by
between
Wart
Plague
Hog and Rock Dassie).
by Mazak
left his country,
&
made
ing lion, which looks like
Thus
taking everything
van
came
in the
unknown, it
Musee
humaine,
83
Een
Vrolik:
Husson
(1960),
a
a
drawing
Cape
of
a
repos-
into account, in
leo
1964.
Preliminary
melanochaitus
catalogue
that it
was
indeed
de la
collection
MM. Gen
.
koninklijke residentie
-
het
verblijf
1807-1808. Utrecht: A.W.
list
of the
specimens
of Panthera
in
(Ch.H. Smith, 1842), preserved
of the whole
world in
1963. Z.
the
Sdugetierk. 29(1):
52-58.
Mazak V.
Mazak
1-968. Der Lowe.
V. 1975.
Notes
on
vised
list
Akad.
Wetensch.
Mazak
V,
of the
Das
the
Pelzgewerbe
black-maned
(Natuurk.) (2)
AM.
Husson
1842).
Zodl.
Meded.
-
Received:
26
H.
19
lion
1960.
leo
64:
of the
Smith, 1842)
XI
melanochaitus
(Leiden),
37
(7):
Cape,
and
Kon.
a
re-
Ned.
pis.
Einige Bemerkungen
eenAmsterdamse
May 1998
1-44,
3-27.
(3):
preserved specimens, Verhand.
early history of the lion before it
highly probable
Lodewijk
Bruna & Zoon.
Kaplowen, Panthera
spite of
van
etpathologique de
De Roever Krober
1941. Utrecht ah
the
Lion.
leeuw
179-184.
(6):
Lodewijk Napoleon te Utrecht
menagerie of King Louis Napoleon is
is
1996.
comparee
Amsterdam:
Smit P.1988. Artis
the fact that the
W.
Panthera leo melanochaita (Ch.
famous Dutch artist Rembrandt (1606-1669), who
never
Evers GA.
museums
zoologist Simon
1865.
el W. Vrolik.
Some of them
the
(e.g.,
out
seen.
the well-known
when he visited
1763 and 1767
pointed
Africa
JL.
d'anatomie
Mazak V.
private
Peter Pallas
As
and in the
South
arrived in the Netherlands. For
many Cape animals could be
were
1758). Secondly,
Dutch colony
animals
Barbary
a
van, Welman
Napoleon. Amstelodamum
(Ch.
liber
H.
101-111, pis.
tuin. Amsterdam;
den
Smith,
1X-X.
Rodopi.