MONKEY TRICKS AT THE ZOO

Evening Star, Issue 21992, 30 March 1935, Page 5

MONKEY TRICKS AT THE ZOO

A rhesus monkey celebrated his arrival at the Zoo the other day by playing a trick on the keepers. He is one of a pair of rhesus monkeys sent to the Zoo as a present in the same travelling box. As they were rather dangerous-looking specimens great care was taken when unpacking them. They were unpacked in the sanatorium, as it was intended to transfer them to a small cage so that they could be medically examined and kept under observation for a few days before being placed in the monkey house. To transfer them without handling them the box was placed against the open door of the cage, and then the sliding door of the box was cautiously opened. The female monkat once walked through into the cage, but her companion began to jump about so that the box rocked and moved slightly from its position against the cage. Ho then quickly put his head and arms out of the box and jumped out. , The keepers hastened to close the door of the cage and placed the box against it to prevent the female from escaping also, and then they armed themselves with nets and began to chase the fugitive. Apparently, however, his only idea was to be annoying, for when he saw the keepers get ready with their nets and generally appear excited he gave them a disdainful look, walked calmly toward the cage, pushed over the box, and, having joined his wife inside the cage, shut the door behind him. Then he lay down and pretended to be dead; his whole attitude suggesting that he felt that he had had a good laugh at the expense of the keepers. A quaint little zoo “ character ” has just celebrated the twenty-first anniversary of his arrival. This is Tommy, a red-billed chough, who was captured in Cornwall in 1914 and sent to the zoo because he was in a very bad state. He was not a young bird, and had seriously injured his right wing; therefore, far from expecting him to become an old inhabitant, the zoo had little hope of him surviving long enough to he an exhibit. , But he was nursed back to health, and, although he did not recover the use of his wing. Tommy soon became so lively that he was placed in an outdoor aviary between the lion house and the cattle sheds, and there he has lived ever since. He is easily recognised, since he cannot fly, and owing to his crippled wing he hops in a peculiar fashion; he is particularly friendly. Unlike some members of the crow family the chough cannot talk, but Tommy greets all passers-by with a loud cheerful squawk, which sounds like a long-drawn “ Hello,” and then he hops to the bars to be stroked or fed. He is the only red-billed chough in the gardens. Among the other inmates of the aviary is a pair of Alpine choughs, and in the spring, when these choughs build a nest, Tommy watches them _ with great interest, but shows no sign of being envious.