GLUTTONS AT ZOO

Grey River Argus, 6 September 1930, Page 9

GLUTTONS AT ZOO

— NEW ARRIVALS IN LONDON. ( After an interval of near’y twenty years the London Zoological Soviet v is . oi-i'e mure able to boast of !>• ing aide to exhib’t specimen. of that most voracious of all animals—tho glutton. A p; 1 j- if adult gluttons rrived a few weeks ago from Norway u the Regent’s Park menagerie, and were enjoying a pe:?ied of retirement in the sanatorium before being introduced to the- public. The glv.ttcn is a carnivorous animal allied to tin* wen sell-. and in Europe occurs in the northerniost forest dis] tricts of Norway, Sweden, and Russia.l A full grown specimen may measure! ovc:( 3ft. in length, and in. ippearai-ce. m-:y be coinpan» i to a bear with super-I added bushy tail. Its popular namp of glutton, says i the Zoological correspondent of the! Daily Telegraph is wtdl earned, since I it will grtrge itself with any animal it j can catch and overpower, and is by no means taver-e from carillon. Although! hdavily built, it is extremely agio, and; has no difficulty in catching such active prey as hares and foxes. , A specimen that lived at the Zoo some years ago con aimed a 41b. joint : a day. and heralde/l the approach of his official meal by loud and uncouth tries not unlike those emitted by aninfuriated boair. Among the qollection of snakes race* ve-1 recently fiu'm Singapore is a. specikb-n of the so-called “two-head-ed” Hake, burrowing species with :t short, rounded tail which, exactly re-' -cnibL-s Hie head in shape. The snake would appear to be well aw; re of this extraordinary resem-i b’anre. since when worried it digs its liea-l into the earth and, adopting' “tail up” a.; its motto. Raises its tail | several inches from the ground in such •- manner tiiiat any casual observer would imagine that the tail was the he:: 1 , and think the reptile was -threat-i mi big to strike. Th e natives declare that Hie snake l ha . a head at each end of the body.f and ih-it the one end sleeps while the other watches. J