SIX MONTHS’ FAST

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 May 1931, Page 9

SIX MONTHS’ FAST

MAMMALS MAKE A RECORD. LONDON, March 22. Animals from Madagascar are usually strange either in appearance or habits, and a pair of tenrecs - (rare hedgehog-like creatures peculiar to Madagascar) have emphasised this once again by establishing a new fasting record among the Zoo’s mammals. They have just broken a fast which lasted nearly six months. Towards the end of last summer these two animals showed signs of being anxious to bury themselves, so their keeper provided them with a deep bed of straw, and at the beginning of October the tenrecs retired from view.*' They at once became torpid, and though food and water were placed by them every day,, they neither ate nor drank, and never even stirred until one morning last week, when they suddenly emerged and demanded a meal.

This is the longest period ever spent in fasting by a mammal in the menagerie, though snakes have been known to exist for twelve months without food. In the case of the rep-

tiles, however, they were on hunger strike, and were in a weak condition at the end of their fast, whereas the tenrecs appear to be in the best of health.' They are slimmer than they were six months ago, but they are active and lively, and are now feeding greedily. In their natural state, tenrecs are said to sleep through the three hottest months of the year—a wise, if unusual habit, since this is the dry season in Madagascar, and there is, therefore, a shortage \>f the worms and insects on which the tenrec lives. But the naturalist who brought the Zoo’s tenrecs to this country noticed that they frequently fell into a torpid state, and would then go without food fox* eight or ten weeks, and remain in excellent condition.

The sunshine brought joy to many of the Zoo’s creatures-, but the birds have evidently been made suspicious by the snow and cold winds, for they are reluctant to believe that it is safe to begin nesting. They were deceived by the warm weather at the end of February, and do not propose to repeat what might prove to be another mistake.