Fami|y Affairs af the Zoo

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 21 January 1939, Page 15

Fami|y Affairs af the Zoo

When the penguin was sitting on its egg, hoping to hatch the first baby penguin of the zoo, other families were collecting. The Indian tigress Jezebel led off with quins, and, so that there should be no sad mistake about their bringing-up (for past events have shown her to be anything but an ideal parent) she was persuaded by a joint of meat to leave them to the care of a large dog as foster-mother. Their future will be watched with interest, for Jezebel’s four sons are strong and healthy, and the smaller daughter is the image of her mother.

The father of the tiger cubs. Amur the Siberian, took no interest in this family event. It was otherwise with Alastair, the' handsomest of the zoo lions, and mate to Lurline, the African lioness who has iust become the mother of cubs. Lurline has gone into retirement with her family, and the zoo keepers adopt the practice of letting sleeping lions lie. But Alastair guards the door where mother and cubs are in retreat. Fatherhood seems to have made him so amiable that he has allowed visitors to pat him through the bars of his cage.