A Zoo's Veterinarian

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32613, 22 May 1971, Page 10

A Zoo's Veterinarian

First Catch Your Tiger. By Oliver Graham-Jones. Collins. 223 pp. In a foreword to this book Gerald Durrell illuminates the immense difficulties encountered by a veterinary surgeon when confronted by sick wild animals—especially large ones. Nobody is better qualified to publish the details of his calling than Oliver Graham-Jones who was for some years Chief Veterinary Officer at the London Zoo, where the health of 800 animals of 250 different species were his special care. Many of the experiences the author , relates here would seem to indicate that his job made him a poor insurance risk. Surgical treatment of animals like tigers and hippos though undertaken when the patient is heavily anaesthetised require pretty strong nerves as the animal's return to consciousness cannot be predicted with absolute accuracy. Diagnosis is also difficult, an irritable elephant, weighing five tons being unable to explain its exact symptoms, when obviously unwell. The author owns to having been terrified when after attending one of these huge beasts she drove him into a narrow passage between two cages where her questing trunk followed him, and he found that the occupant of the adjoining cage was also carrying out a search for him. Fortunately the situation was saved by a resourceful keeper who liberated the second elephant leaving an escape route clear. These and many other similar experiences Mr Graham-Jones relates with a clarity and wit which shows a fine talent for writing. The author has some harsh comments to make on the behaviour of the more witless Zoo patrons, who not only try to offer animals totally unsuitable food but sometimes have a streak of malice which prompt them to torment the wretched beasts, as was exemplified when one of them offered a banana to an elephant which contained a knife.

The difference, between wild and domestic animals is not often appreciated. Whereas the latter readily identify with man no creature brought un in a wild state has any interest in the world outside its own needs, and

it is here that the function of keepers is so important These magnificent men do establish some sort of rapport with their charges—so much so that when a couple of lions escaped from their cage when the Zoo was open, and there were many people about they quietly obeyed the voice of authority which bade them sternly return to their captivity. A tricky moment. The projected mating of the English female Giant Panda Chi-Chi and the Russian male An-An provides much comedy in the telling. The book is unfailingly entertaining as well as informative on a subject no reader is likely to know anything about, and it is very well illustrated.