DENIZENS OF THE ZOO

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 102, 26 October 1929, Page 24

DENIZENS OF THE ZOO

THEIR DAILY MENU

Nearly 50,000 dollars (£10,000) a year is tho total butcher, grocer, green grocer, and fish bill for the 3000 living croaturcs in tho New York Zoological Park, says the "Scientific American." The kitchens aro out of tho beaten track. At certain times of tho day a peculiar type of push cart starts out on tho journey to the widely separated animal and bird houses, and its arrival is apt to be received with audible marks of delight. Through tho service roads come the supplies to the commissary department. The mammals require daily: 250 pounds of beef, 50 pounds of fish, 175 loaves of bread, 1 ton of hay, 15 bushels of grain, 100 heads of cabbage, 450 bananas, 150 apples, 50 oranges, and 25 quarts of milk. This is not all, but the full list would tiro. Some of the big snakes are "content with a quick lunch every three or four weeks. A small pig is a delightful morsel, but is rather distending for the first three days. The rarer the animal, the more expensive the diet. The short-lived duck-billed platypus used to consume over 4.50 dollars' worth of meal worms and shrimps every day. Even this did not keep away tho grim reaper. Everybody and everything eats in the Zoo, and there is never any talk of the high cost of provisions.