ZOO CROCODILES FIGHT

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3311, 6 April 1926, Page 3

ZOO CROCODILES FIGHT

i MOSES VERSUS PHARAOH. AN ANCIENT REFEREE. “King Pharaoh’ 1 has gone to gaol. He has been sentenced to six montns solitary confinement for brawling, and fighting with “Moses.” Pharoah is the finest man-eating crocodile possessed ;by. the Zoo, .Ho has a loft back with knobs all over it. His jaws gape: like a set mantrap. He Is SO years of ago and a bully. Moses, like Pharaoh, comes from the Nile. He Is as great l a tyrant as Pharoah, but only, half his age, a mere youngster..

Moses defied Pharaoh. Serious trouble followed. Nobody knew wnat it was about, but in, a few seconds the pond .was a prize-ring-. “George" a 120-year-old alligator, refereed tne fight. . Other alligators clung to me pond edge and gave all possible room. Two snapper-terrapins crowded unaer a log and telescoped their 18in nccKS in and ot to watch every phase or the struggle. . . , . Moses gave his best. His jaws snapped and snapped for Pharaoh’s eyes, seeking the "knockout.” Pharaoh brought his big tail to bear in the attempt to shift Moses entirely off his bearings. Twice, too, his cavernous mouth opened ,and he got home on Moses’s horny armour with a clang like a patent stone, crusher. Now and again as the two bloods circled round, •patriarch “George” gave each of them one for luck. The pool was lashed to foam. Both brutes became maddened. The scrap developed onto a life struggle. Mississippi alligators not in the fight had many a narraw escape;-the Borneo River turtles scurried for safety; Kai Lung, a 6ft Chinese alligator, who is in prison, (a partition-cd-off corner of the same pond), and who will fight anyrhihg from a suckling pig to a rhinoceros, gnashed at his bars, inquiring with loud snaps if it were a public fight or a private affair. The whole reptile-hous e - was excited.

Then the. keeper, and his staff appeared with poles. They joined in the trouble, from safe vantage points. Pharaoh’s teeth met on tasteless wood; Moses’ armour felt the urge of vigorous prods.

At length Pharaoh was headed for a little wicket, gate in a corner or the pond, A moment later, with muraer in his eyes, he dashed througn. He was in durance vile. Moses scarred and subdued, sulked » during the day, but finally accepted an 81b chunk of flesh, which he gulped down his neck as easily as an epicure would swallow a small IBenedictme. Peace reigns; but Moses is growing up, and thg future is black with remours of vengeance.