A LAZY CREATURE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 61, 9 September 1937, Page 23

A LAZY CREATURE

LONDON'S SALAMANDER

One of the occupants of the London Zoo is Sligo,- the Chinese salamander, which, as far as can be ascertained, is utterly unlike any other salamander or creature in the world, says the "Daily Mail." Exactly when he was born or who his parents were is unknown. Unknown also is the story of his early days—whether his father and mother, surprised at the appearance of their baby son, expelled him from the family, or whether the poor. little creature wandered off on his own. Somehow, Sligo managed to find the water which is life to his kind, and he battled through a lonely childhood to be discovered eventually, flourishing, in a disused drain in Hong Kong. From' there, because his head was much flatter, his body blacker, and his length shorter than is fashionable among salamanders, he was labelled as a new species, and bundled off to London Zoo. Not one other salamander like him has been found. He is, apparently, a creature unique in the world. His keeper says: "He should be in this tank for the next 40 or 50 years at least, though, of course, he may be different in this as hfi is in mrst other things." He breathes five times a day. He had not breathed for two hours; it would be another three before he rose to the surface of the water to take the solitary gulp of air which would last him for the afternoon. "Funny lungs he has," says the keeper. |He would make a fortune as a diver lif he was human. Thai, is, if he worked at all, because I've never seen a more lazy creature: not a stroke of exercise, and we have to tickle him once a week (o make him feed, or he i wouldn't bother even to do that."