Theodore Roosevelt's African Safari & Scientific Expedition

Theodore Roosevelt - African Safari & Scientific Expedition

Expedition Members Newland & Tarlton, outfitters R.J. Cunninghame, leader Leslie J. Tarlton, adjutant Edmund Heller, zoologist, age 34 J. Alden Loring, zoologist, age 38 Edgar A. Means, physician, age 52 Kermit Roosevelt, photographer, age 21 Theodore Roosevelt, bwana, age 50

Hunting Licenses 50gbp, 50 animals/hunter 17gbp, extra bull elephant 5gbp, extra giraffe, rhino, or eland 3gbp, extra antelope 2gbp, extra wildebeest 2gbp, extra waterbuck

Expedition Costs $50,000 from Smithsonian Museum appeal $25,000 from Theodore Roosevelt $25,000 from Andrew Carnegie 2005 equivalent = appx. $1.8 million dollars

Game List

Letter from T.R. to The Smithsonian regarding collected specimens

Lion = 9 Hyena = 5 Elephant = 8 Rhinoceros = 5 (square mouth) Rhinoceros = 8 (hook lipped) Hippopotamus = 7 Warthog = 8 Zebra (common) = 15 Zebra (big) = 5 Giraffe = 7 Buffalo = 6 Elan (giant) = 1 Elan (common) = 5 Bushbuck =2 (East African) Bushbuck = 1 (Ugandan) Bushbuck = 3 (Nile) Roan = 4 Oryx = 10 Wildebeest = 5 Hartebeest = 10 (Coke's) Hartebeest = 14 (Jackson's) Hartebeest = 1 (Ugandan) Hartebeest = 8 (Nilotic) Topi = 12 Waterbuck = 5 (common) Waterbuck = 6 (singsing) Python = 3

Kob = 10 (common) Kob = 1 (Vaughan's) Kob = 3 (white eared) Lechwe = 3 (saddlebacked) Redbuck (bohor) = 10 Buck (Chanler's) = 3 Impalla = 7 Gazelle (Granti) = 5 Gazelle (Robertsi) = 4 Gazelle (Notata) = 8 Gazelle = 11 (Thompson's) Gerenuk = 3 Klipspringer = 1 Oribi = 18 Duiker = 3 Steinbuck = 4 Dikdik = 1 Monkey = 1 (red ground) Monkey = 5 (black and white ground) Ostrich = 2 Bustard (Greater) = 4 Bustard (Lesser) = 1 Crane (kavirondo) = 2 Stork (whale head) = 1 Marabou = 1 Stork (saddle bill) = 2 Stork (ibis) = 1 Pelican= 5 Guinea fowl = 1 Crocodile = 1

QUICK FACTS

- from Wikipedia :


In March 1909, shortly after the end of his presidency, Roosevelt left New York for a safari in east and central Africa. Roosevelt's party landed in Mombasa, British East Africa (now Kenya), traveled to the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) before following the Nile up to Khartoum in modern Sudan. Financed by Andrew Carnegie and by his own proposed writings, Roosevelt's party hunted for specimens for the Smithsonian Institution and for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The group included scientists from the Smithsonian and was led by the legendary hunter-tracker R.J. Cunninghame and was joined from time to time by Frederick Selous, the famous big game hunter and explorer. Among other items, Roosevelt brought with him four tons of salt for preserving animal hides, a lucky rabbit's foot given to him by boxer John L. Sullivan, an elephant-rifle donated by a group of 56 admiring Britons, and the famous Pigskin Library, a collection of classics bound in pig leather and transported in a single reinforced trunk.


All told, Roosevelt and his companions killed or trapped over 11,397 animals, from insects and moles to hippopotamuses and elephants. These included 512 big game animals, including six rare white rhinos. The expedition consumed 262 of the animals. Tons of salted animals and their skins were shipped to Washington; the quantity was so large that it took years to mount them all, and the Smithsonian was able to share 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." However, although the safari was ostensibly conducted in the name of science, there was another, quite large element to it as well. Along with many native peoples and local leaders, interaction with renowned professional hunters and land owning families made the safari as much a political and social event, as it was a hunting excursion. Roosevelt wrote a detailed account of the adventure in the book African Game Trails, where he describes the excitement of the chase, the people he met, and the flora and fauna he collected in the name of science.

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