New Arrivals At London Zoo

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30092, 28 March 1963, Page 4

New Arrivals At London Zoo

[By ZALIA THOMAS] LONDON. One of the most exciting recent arrivals at the London Zoo is Toto, the baby African elephant from the foothills bordering Tanganyika and Uganda.

Apart from her enormous bat-wing ears, one of the most remarkable things about her is her huge appetite. Food is her weakness, so much so that when she is taken to her paddock on toe main lawn, tit-bits have had to be forbidden her to stop her from over-eating and to discourage her from expiring every pocket that comes within reach of her inquiring trunk.

Toto in Swahili means the “little one.*’ By contrast, two dainty creatures from West Africa have proved as shy as Toto from the east is bold. Nine inches tall and a mere 21b in weight, Cheeky and Bambi were both hand-reared from birth—Cheeky in Ghana and Bambi in Nigeria. They are the first true pair at these diminutive animals to come to London Zoo and the first royal antelopes on view in the gardens since 1933. Spindly Legs Royal antelopes stand on spindly legs, little thicker than a pencil and, whenever the anefope bouse is quiet, they silently creep from the shelter of their' box to eat their fresh, green clover and chopped-up fruit. The male has tiny horns, pointing sharply beck and is as silent in bis movements as ids mate. Sismang Will Howl The monkey house, by contrast, can look to a noisy chorus in a year or two, for a atamang named Sam baa just arrived tram a sailor in Hong Kong. Just two years old, be has no voice aa yet, but when folly grown will doubtless display toe habits of his kind and rand toe house with hideous howls, to competition with his relative toe boolock gibbon which has a vibrating caA which sounds very like hie name. Siamangs come from toe idtand of Sumatra- and spend their livea swinging high amongst toe trees, filUng toe forest at dawn and duck with their haunting calls. Far up toe reaches of toe

Amazon and deep in toe forests of Brazil, lives a curious little toucan called a curt-crested aracari, seldom seen by man. The first of these birds to arrive in Europe readied toe London Zoo in March and can be seen in the bird house.

It is a strange bird, graced with the enormous bill which is common to toe toucan tribe, and with tightly-roiled black feathers on its head. Ring-Tailed Coati Don Pancho, toe ringtailed coati was also abandoned art birth. Luckily, however, be found a faithful and attentive foster-mother in toe curator of mammate’ secretary. Interspersing her busy hours at toe typewriter with toe preparation of baby food, toe fed ham from a pen fitter «t two-houriy intervals and carried him home each evening in his wicker basket surrounded by hot-waiter bottles, to continue toe feeds at night. Don Pancho is quickly growing up, and his little pointed nose is incessantly exploring all that is new and strange.