LIFE AT THE ZOO

Northern Advocate, 19 July 1933, Page 6

LIFE AT THE ZOO

I TASTES AND DISLIKES OP ANIMALS. ADDRESS BY COLONEL SPAIN. SYDNEY, July 14. Somo popular misconceptions about the habits of wild animals were corrected by Colonel Alfred Spain, chairman of the Taronga Park Trust, in an address when opening the “Pets in Portraiture’’ exhibition at the Blaxland Galleries. The ostrich, Tor example, does not relish a diet of nuts, bolts and broken bottles, but has a delicate digestion. It cannot even digest raw carrots, and its food has to be selected and prei pared with care by its attendants. Lions and tigers are not always ravenous. One good meal of horseflesh a day, supplemented with oils containing vitamins, is all they require, and, after it, they show no interest in food for 24 hours.

A curious fact about the python, Colonel Spain said, was that it was guided by colours and not by flavours when choosing its food. If it was used to a diet of white fowls it would refuse black ones. This was due to the fact that it swallowed the birds, feathers and all, and therefore could not taste their liesh. The attendants did not have great difficulty in handling the 25-foot python if it was necessary to give it medical attention. 1A bag was thrown over the python's head, and at a signal a number of attendants grasped the body, while one man grasped the head. Recently it was decided that the chimpanzee, which is 23 years of age,

was becoming too stout. His ration was reduced, but this had the effect of making the animal so ill-tempered that the usual ration was restored. The chimpanzee and the other great apes ate three dozen bananas at a sitting. One seal required eight pounds of fish (mostly mullet) and squid a day. Camels and llamas ate nothing but lucerne hay all the year round. The animals at the Zoo, Colonel Spain added, wore often in need of serious medical care. If a lion or tiger needed a serious operation chloroform was resorted to, and the animal was lifted unconscious from its

cage. A careful watch had to be kept lest the animal should “come to’’ during the operation. Recently the polar bear, which was a savage and dangerous animal, had to be treated in this way for injuries caused by treading on a hatpin dropped by a visitor. Colonel Spain said that the anteaters in Taronga Park did not eat ants; instead they had yesterday afternoon mincemeat, raw eggs, and milk, from which they obtained all the vitamins normally yielded by a diet of ants. Jessie, the , 55-year-old elfphant, was the oldest elephant in captivity. The chimpanzee was born in 1916, and he held a record for longevity in captivity. Crocodiles required a minimum temperature of at least 70 degrees, so only alligators were seen at Taronga. Polar bears were only as largo as rats at birth. Most of the troubles of monkeys resulted from fights, for in nine cases

out of ten the rest of the monkeys attacked the vanquished and gave him a thorough mauling. Like human beings, animals were subject to at least one cold a year, and were dosed on ordinary cough mixture.