BEAR KILLS ITS MATE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 154, 26 March 1938, Page 13

BEAR KILLS ITS MATE

Nocturnal Tragedy At Newtown Zoo UNACCOUNTABLE AFFRAY Early yesterday morning, in sudden and unaccountable fury, the big white bear at the Wellington Zoo turned savagely upon one of the she-bears tb<(t shared his cage, and killed her, apparently with a single blow of his powerful paw. The zoo keepers bad no hint that tragedy stalked the Newtown gardens' until they visited the bear-pits in the early morning, and saw the she-bear lying dead, with the blood-spattered male standing guard over her. He growled angrily when they made preparations for removing the body by means of ropes, and displaying enormous strength he picked up the carcase and began dragging it from end to end of the enclosure. 1 The dead'bear had been completely disembowelled by a single terrible blow of the male bear’s clawed forefoot. The only other mark on her was a single deep gash on one leg. There was no sign of a fight; the he-bear had received no injury whatever. Mr. J. Langridge, curator of the Zoo, said that it appeared to him that the dead bear had probably resented the other’s attentions, had possibly cuffed him with her paw, and in sudden anger he had struck back with his full strength. The speed and power of these huge animals was colossal. The he-bear had shown no previous sign of savagery. For more than a month, since the arrival of the two new polar bears from Hobart, they had lived in perfect amity'with the dead one, which was the original Newtown specimen. She had been at the Zoo for 15 years, and had originally been obtained from Auckland. She was notably goodtempered. When last observed on Thursday night the three bears had settled down to sleep, in different corners of the enclosure. The two she-bears showed no jealousy to one another. The two surviving bears, which were recently acquired from the Hobart Zoo, were originally circus animals. They brought with them the reputation of being a cantankerous couple, for they declined to submit to being caged for transport from Hobart, defying their keepers and resisting a long siege in their cage. They took ‘to sleeping in the open, and not until the pangs of hunger became acute would they be enticed by food into their dens. The body of the dead bear, whose pelt, apart from the principal injury, was not seriously damaged, has been handed over to the Dominion Museum authorities.