IN LONDON'S ZOO

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 120, 16 November 1929, Page 20

IN LONDON'S ZOO

MANY STRANGE BEASTS

'A number of rare anijnals from Mad-, agascar-—the tome of many weird and primitive beasts—arrived recently at the Eegent's Park menagerie (states the "Daily Telegraph.") Included in the- collection were two specimensl^ of that lowest and most primitive member of the monkey tribe, the aye-aye, an animal which, has not: been represented in the Zoological Society's collection since 1913. Its head is more like that of a young bear than that of a monkey; the tail is bushy and foxlike, and the front teeth are large and chisel-shaped, riinilar to those of a rodent. ' The feet, however, are undoubtedly simian, for the great toe has a flat nail and is opposable to the others, which are provided with claws. The mddle finger is extremely long and slender, and is of use to the creature in extracting the insects from the cracks in the barks of trees. This long, slender finger is further made use of when the animal takes liquid nourishment, for when in the act of drinking he puts his lips to the water and inserts his finger through his mouth behind the incisor teeth, drawing it rapidly backwards and forwards as the water is sucked up, in the manner of a man cleaning his teeth. An egg is disposed of in the same, extraordinary vided with claws. The middle finger working sideways in its mouth after making an incision in the shell. From the public's point of view the aye-aye makes an unsatisfactory exhibit in a menagerie, as, being thoroughly nocturnal, it spends the greater part of the day nidden away, only becoming active as the last visitor has passed through the exit turnstile. Mr. C. Webb, who formed the collection, had. great difficulty in persuading the natives to help him in the capture and transport of the aye-ayes,"owing to the unholy awe that surrounds the species and the atmosphere of superstition which these mystery animals create in the mind of the unsophisticated Madagascan population. A dwarf lemur with a two-months-old baby, which tho mother carries transversely across the lower parts of her body, the infant hanging on to the fur by gripping with its hands and feet, a number of boas, and a specimen of that very rare heldgehog-liko insectivore, the tenric, form -part of the now collection. .. The last-named animal, the most prolific of all mammals, producing over twenty young at a birth, is characterised by a very long headland snout, a peculiar dentition, a minute brain, and the fact that its body is covered with a mixture of flexible spines and hairs. Unlike the hedgehog, however, it is incapable of rolling itself up into a ball. , The boas are interesting, as outside Madagascar the habitat of these snakes is restricted to the New World. In fact, a remarkable feature in the distribution of reptiles is the community between the fiuna of Madagascar and South America .as exemplified Jby the boas, the iguanas, and certain turtles, and which has suggested the theory that at some time or other the island was connected with South America—a connection from which Africa was excluded.