ZOO POPULAR DURING HOLIDAY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 80, 28 December 1940, Page 8

ZOO POPULAR DURING HOLIDAY

Tiger Cubs A Draw BROWN BEAR BITTEN BY ITS NEIGHBOUR The Newtown Park Zoo was a popular attraction during the holidays. Improved and brightened up during the last year, and its stock increased by numbers of interesting additions, the zoo is now at its best, the gardens bright with flowers and the animals in tine fettle. More than 400 people visited the zoo on Christmas Day, 600 on Boxing Day, and about the same number yesterday. Among the most popular exhibits were the month-old tiger cubs, which aie now about the size of a big eat, and magnificently striped and specked. They spend most of their time out tn the sunshine, and appeal particularly to child visitors. . Nellicutha, the elephant, carried 100 fares for rides round the gardens each day of the holidays. She was specially popular yesterday, and did even more business than preceding days, as for some reason the proportion of children in the visiting crowds was greater yesterday. . The curator, Mr. C. J. Cutler, said yesterday that many people had come to the zoo office drawing attention to an injury received by the little brown bear imported recently from Canada. The zoo authorities were, of course, aware of what had happened. lhe bear had managed to dislodge a bar across a drain connecting its cage with that of the polar bears, and had thrust its paw through. The polar bear had promptly bitten it badly. The wound had been cleaned and attended to, and had been accorded careful examination by qualified medical officers, who were agreed that the best course would be to leave the wound open; the bear was healthy and would keep the wound clean while it healed. Meantime, however, the bear had discovered that by holding up its damaged paw for sympathy it received more than the usual largesse from patrons, and In this way was drawing attention to what had happened to it. . A remarkable happening at the zoo has been the nesting of the spotted doves, which arrived from the East two months ago. Not only have they already adjusted their nesting to the change of hemisphere, but they have raised a brood of four chicks, and embarked upon a second family. It is usual for animals and birds imported from the northern hemisphere at the beginning of the breeding season to miss a year before adjusting themselves to the new conditions.