REBECCA AND HER BABY

Evening Star, Issue 21880, 17 November 1934, Page 5

REBECCA AND HER BABY

A quaint baby animal is now on view in the Tapir House at the Zoo. llebecca, the Brazilian tapir, has become a mother for the second time.

The little tapir arrived two clays after August Bank Holiday, and as the Zoo was crowded with visitors it was thought advisable tp keep Rebecca in strict seclusion for a few days to avoid risk of her being irritated by too many callers. Rebecca remained, however, as amiable as ever with her keeper, and as she showed no desire to keep her new charge hidden she and the youngster were on view within a week of the birth. Now the newcomer is much in evidence, for as long as the weather is favourable Rebecca takes him out of doors and he then stands close to the bars to be admired.

Unlike so many Zoo babies, the tapir is not just a miniature edition of his mother. Indeed, he differs from her so much in colouring that he might almost be mistaken for a strange foster child. The adult Brazilian tapir is a uniform dark brown colour, but the baby is grey-black and gaily patterned with whitc_ stripes and spots.

Rebecca is an excellent mother, and last year she reared an offspring with such success that her first born is now at Whipsnade. Ho is the first tapir to be exhibited in the country zoo. Among the latest arrivals from

abroad are four rare and beautiful squirrels from East Africa. Squirrels are always popular inmates of the menagerie, and the new quartet of red-headed squirrels is proving a great attraction. As their name suggests the fur on their heads is red, but on their faces and backs it is grey, while their undersides are red and their tails are mixed with red and grey. Through t,ho bars of their den these rodents seem confiding and friendly, but they are not tame when interviewed at close quarters, 'though they may seem too smalj to be anything but harmless, they could bo nasty adversaries. Like the great majority • of caged squirrels they will not on any account allow anyone to handle them. The Zoo’s squirrels are exhibited in the Small Mammal House, but although this building also shelters some northern lynxes, mongooses, armadillos, and porcupines, the most dangerous inmate of the house is a small Gambian tree squirrel called Dixie. Dixie looks mild, and through the bars ho is most friendly, yet each morning when the keeper wants to clean the cage he has to provide his little charge with a store of tempting food; otherwise the squirrel flies at

his neck or eyes the moment the door is opened. • Dixie’s attitude is quite common. When squirrels have their liberty they soon become so tame that they will sit on their friends’ arms, shoulders, and even heads while they are fed by hand; but' when they are caged they refuse to become pets. Some time ago the Zoo had a black squirrel called Nigger, who was so bad tempered that the keeper had to catch him in a net every day at cleaning time or the cage could not have been cleaned. The keeper also had to open the door of the cage by stealth, because if the squirrel heard him turning the key he jumped to the door and bit the keeper before the net could bo produced.