Gastro makes zoo power play

Press, 10 July 1985, Page 10

Gastro makes zoo power play

NZPA-Reuter Stockholm Henry, the senior crocodile at Stockholm Zoo, has lost two toes in a power struggle with a rival called Castro, the gift of Cuba’s President, Dr Fidel Castro. Jonas Wahlstrom, head of the zoo’s aquarium, said that he planned to rename the crocodile pool “Little Cuba” because of the guerrilla war between Henry, aged 13, and his seven-year-old challenger. Henry, which hails from Egypt, had his toes amputated after being savaged by Castro, who has been trying to dominate the crocodile community since arriving from Moscow Zoo in 1981. Castro’s aggressiveness horrified visitors last month when he caught a baby monkey in his jaws and snapped it in half. The Cuban pretender, originally given to a Soviet cosmonaut by Dr Castro before being handed on to the Swedish zoo, demonstrated his superior virility by fathering 13 offspring to Henry’s four last year. Henry is a Nile crocodile that was confiscated by Customs in 1976 after an attempt to smuggle him into Sweden.