ZOO FOOD BILL

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 77, 31 March 1928, Page 7 (Supplement)

ZOO FOOD BILL

SEA LION EATS MORE THAN ELEPHANT COST OF UPKEEP. More people went to the London Zoo in 1927 than in any previous year in its history. Admissions totalled 2,158,208, which beats the previous record (held by 1924, Wembley year) by more than 100,000. Because the proportion of children was greater in 15)27, the money taken at the gates was slightly less— £68,433, against £69,220. The overseas visitors in Wembley year were, of course, mainly adults, and the weight of their shillings compared with the sixpences of British children made the difference. The Zoo aquarium was visited by 458,936 people last year, who paid between them £18,293. When you add the profits of the Zoo's catering department (about £20,000) and the £22,000 paid in subscriptions by Fellows of the Zoological Society, you get an income of more than £120,000 front these four sources alone. Add the pennies from the interiors of the ostriches (recovered at the inquests) and you get the imposing figures. The bare cost of food for the animals is about £13,000 a year, and there are some surprising bills for individual birds and animals. "Old Bill," the walrus (now dead, unfortunately) cost more than three elephants to feed. His appetite for fish cost £400 a year, while an elephant can be fed for about £120 a year. It is the fish-eaters that run up the costs. A sea lion eats more than an elephant when it comes to paying bills— £160 a year per head. The land lion is a cheap pet compared with his seafaring cousin, for the king of beasts eats only 1/6 worth of cat's meat a day. Jt costs as much to keep three penguins (a shilling a head a day) as a pair of full-grown lions, while the pelican'* bill (in terms of cash) is just as lon<' as a lion's. 0