LONDON ZOO CENSUS

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 4, 6 January 1938, Page 10

LONDON ZOO CENSUS

' V SEVEN-COBRAS IN ONE

WHAT THE ANIMALS ARE

WORTH-

THE SEAR GOBILLAS.

(Special.—By Air Mall.)

LONDON, December 18.

The end of December is stock-taking time at the London Zoo Keepers are busy taking a census of all the animals, birds and reptiles. Checking elephants, hippos, gorilla* and rhinos is, of course, child's play, but not so easy is the task of counting small .birds on the wing and reptiles which insist on hiding beneath stones or burying themselves in sand and leaf-mould. > ,

A census invariably reveals that some are missing. A bird, for instance, may have escaped from a well-populated aviary; a. lish may have.gone down the overflow; or a snake may have become another snake's dinner. Once a king cobra swallowed his six companions— ordinary cobras—a meal which cost the zoo £25. .... ~ .

1 The first hippo that reached the zoo in 1850 was valued at £1000. Now, so freely do these "river horses" breed in captivity that their value has slumped to £200. 1 ' ' '

Anyone wishing to buy a Hon a few years ago would have had to pay £100 or more; £20 or leas is to-day's price— again the result of a high menagerie birth rate.

The most valuable animals in the zoo are Moina and Mok, the only pair of gorillas in Europe. They would make a dear Christmas present worth £5000 each, according to Dr. Vevers, the zoo's superintendent. Next among the zoo's are the rhinos, valued at £1000 each; the two working elephants would cost £800 each to buy.