NIGHT TIME IN THE ZOO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20621, 21 July 1930, Page 10

NIGHT TIME IN THE ZOO.

AN' EERIE EXPERIENCE. QUEER HABITS OF BEASTS. A COYOTE SYMPHONY. 'COMMOTION IN MONKEY HOUSE. / Thcro are still somo corners left in the city whero life can be not altogether dull »ud spineless, where adventure stalks abroad at dusk and nerves need to bo steeled aright. One of them is tlio Auckland Zoological Park—a pleasant enough domain by day, but an eerio spot at night, full of weird scufflings and startling noises, fiery eyes gleaming out of the dark and shadowy shapes moving stealthily through tlio blackness.

Tho zoo at night is a closed book to the public. Its uiazo of paths is traversed only by a solitary watchman, a muscular giant and a champion wrestler in his time, who would bo a pretty good match in a sudden encounter with cither man or beast. Every hour ho makes his nocturnal round, testing tho padlocks that imprison ferocious denizens of tho jungle and watching tho dens and cages for any sigu of untoward disturbance. Years of familiarity have attuned his ears to all tho

strange sounds of the zoo at night, but

to tho stranger it is all rather new and •exciting, and when a grating snarl breaks tho deathly silenca just besido him it is hard to be convinced that stout steel bars separate him frora tho man-eating tiger invisible in tho darkness. A Walk With the Leopard.

Not .all the animals in the zoo are awake at night. The deep-throated roar of tho lions, heard for miles around when tho wind is in the right quarter, does not a occasion (lie bear;; the slightest concern. Ppr tho best part of the night they lie curled up in the innermost recesses of their dens and the massed roaring of all the lions in creation will not make them budge. No sign will bo seen of tho eland or tho koodoo, the African antelope, which insist on taking their nap under cover of darkness, and all the birds, with tho exception of the cver-wakofui owl, are fast asleep on their perches. But everywhere else tho zoo .is stealthily astir. Anyone who hankers after a good shock to the nervous system could not do better than take a solitary stroll past the tiger cages some night when everything is deathly still and a good thick fog blots out every shape with an impenetrable clammy blanket. Somewhere on tho other side of tho zoo a weka screams, and the ear strains to locate the rumble of running water in tho direction of tho seal pond. Suddenly, very close,' a soft footfall is heard, creeping up behind until it is besido the walker, keeping paco with him as ho walks. Tat, pat-, pat, it goes, a few inches to your right, and then you hear tho breathing of somo great beast. It is tho black : leopard on the prowl and just as you nre debating, in one panicky instant, whether to stop dead or run you remember the bars that you cannot see in tho mist, and the heart starts to beat again with relief. Opossum Scares the Monkeys. A few nights ago thoro was a panic !n tho monkey house. The night watchman, on his nocturnal round, discovered the monkeys huddled up in ono corner of the pit cage, whimpering with fear and their teeth chattering with cold, for the wind was in the south. Puzzled to know why they were not making use of their cosy sleeping quarters, ho instituted a 6earch, but could not locate the cause of the commotion. The next night it was the same, but on the third night a search with electric torches revealed a large opossum in possession of the sleeping quarters, where it was gorging itself on the monkeys' food. In tho wholo range of their experience these particular monkeys had apparently never seen an opossum and the sight of the animal mado thern shiver with fear, liather than face tho strange creature they remained outside for three nights in n bitterly cold wind, with the result that ono monkey diedt from exposure and two others made themselves ill. Tho opossum, which had evidently climbed the fence and dropped into tho cago from the top, was quickly captured in a neb and taken back to its proper place, while good hot food and other stimulating treatment restored tho panic-stricken monkeys to something like their old selves again.

Lions in Combat. Lion fights are among tho several exciting events for which tho night watchman has a box seat for himself. When the moon is up and the creatures can bo clearly mado out in the shadows of their pit it is a fearsome sight to see them tearing each other with claw and fang, to an accompaniment of tho most ferocious snarls. At theso times tho whole zoo wakes up to listen to tho combat and pandemonium breaks loose. Talking of zoo noises, tho most aweinspiring is tho whining of tho wolves. It starts when all tho other animals are silent. I'irst a solitary coyote begins to Jiioan, tho sound expanding on an ascending scalo until it ends iu a shrill scream. f lhere is a pause of a second; then a second animal lets looso a piercing shriek, 11s though it were t.uffering all the agonies of perdition, and the next instant tho whole pack gives tongue, screaming and Laying in ono mad cacophony of yelps. Suddenly all stop except one, which moans dismally fo;: a few more seconds. Then silence once more descends over tho animal city. A Fright From the Kangaroo. On the way to tho hippopotamus pond you are oertain to get a fright from old man kangaroo. Nothing is to be seen as you pass his cage and you are just wondering what is going to startlo you next when an indefinite mass hurtles through the air, lands at your feet with a sickening ' thud and rebounds into the black .void again like a streak of lightning. After tho kangaroo the hippos, are nice creatures. In tho black waters of the stream that runs through tho park the baby hippo, wallows lazily, tho tip of its nose and its eyes being all to bo seen abovo water. Mother and father can bo heard, but not seen, roaming the grounds under the trees. The anoa, or pigmy buffalo from the Celebes, appears almost friendly. At least, it runs up to meet tho visitor. Tho gnu, the nilghai arid tho llama can bo dimly seen grazing, while in ono corner of the grounds a grunt like that of a pig lots tho world know that tho wildebeest is awake. Restless Jamuna. Tho elephant is the most sleepless of nil the inhabitants of this dark city. All "ight long, except for an odd hour or so, when sho lies down on one side and shuts her eyelids, Jamura moves restlessly from ono paddy foot to the other, doing, a kind of comic dance from which she appears to reap a tremendous amount of silent amusement. Jamuna is the best watchdog in the Zoological Park. Her senso. of smoll and hearing is so acute that sho can detect the presence of a stranger in the grounds 100 yds. or 200 yds. "If. The watchman she knows by his footsteps, but nobody else will she tolerute tic.u hei at night. Jsmuna even knows when a stranger is standing in the road outside her palatial mansion and sho shows her displeasure by beating on the walls of her bedroom with her trunk find stamping impatiently up and down until the watchman has induced tho in- }° EO away. The elephant's moods Tr a » P 11GS lla ve to bo taken seriously i!' Sh# will make trouble, and trouble, be damn* . elerha " t staits it, is liable to damaging and expensive.