HOUSEKEEPING AT THE ZOO.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 213, 2 June 1908, Page 4

HOUSEKEEPING AT THE ZOO.

• «— ...... A, YEAR'S The financial budget of the London Zoo, which has just been issued, shows that tho inmates havo such 'healthy appetites that it •'costs £4250 a year to food i)nom. ' There wore 3190 animals in the Zoo at tho end of last year," and the catering department is obligetl to supply everything from horsos' to monkey nuts tor tho animals' bill of faro. . " ■ i ■ : ' Without considering the buns , and ' nuts which tho public lavish on tho elephants and monkeys, tno year's food bill is a very heavy ono, as the following sample figures sliowi— Clover ... ~..'£ssl Hay ... £656 Corn ... £282 Fish £357 Fruit ...• ... £393 Horse flesh, costing £221, was eaten also, but there,was a' shortago in the supply of healthy horses for animals' food, ana so 55391b. of beef wore eaten in addition. Tho animata . ate, among other things:— 194 goats. ' 40cwt. monkey'nuts. 83 2oz. jars meat ex- 4326 tins oondonsed traot. ' milk. 38,804 fowls', heads. 29311b.'grapes; 2500 pintß of shrimps.. 8622 oranges., 26,025 eggs.. 1681b. currants. 648 quarterns of 15,264 lettuces. bread. •. . 69,102 bananas. 12,695 pints ' new 20 cucumbers. . milk.. ■ ! 1 2 tons ,of rice'. A Bactrian camel and a giraffo were among the animals born in the Zoo, and, among those which arrived last year as-babies were: Cross vipers. _ Sooty phalanger. Copperhead viper. ' " Collared peccary. Rat-tailed vipers. • Timber wolves. Black T striped' wal- Chipping squirrels. laby. , Crested porcuptnesj Rufous rat Kangaroo. • ' 1 and an Indian a-ntclopo. English wild bull. Japanese deer. ■- ' Nearly 564,000 visitors looked at tho animals'during 1907. : ' Tho hopelessness of attempting to koop humming-birds alive in tho English climato was demonstrated by. Mr. Albert Pain's experiment. Thcro is not ono survivor out of the eighteen birds ho brought to Regent's Park. - ; .