GLUTTONS AT A ZOO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20656, 30 August 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

GLUTTONS AT A ZOO.

NEW ARRIVALS IN LONDON

MOST VORACIOUS OF ANIMALS. After an interval of nearly twenty years the London Zoological Society is once more able to boast, of being able to exhibit specimens of that most voracious of all animals—the glutton. A pair of adult gluttons arrived a few weeks ago from Norway at the Regent s Park menagerie, and were enjoying a period of retirement in the sanatorium before being introduced to the public. The glutton is a carnivorous animal allied to the weasels, and ill Europe occurs in the northernmost forest districts of Norway, Sweden, and Russia. A full grown specimen may measure over 3ft. in length, and in appearnace may be complied to a bear with super added bushy tail.

Jts popular name of glutton, says the Zoological correspondent of the Daily Telegraph is well earned, since it will gorge itself with any animal that it can

catch and overpower, and is by no means averse from carrion. Although heavily built, it, is extremely agile, and has no difficulty in capturing such active prey as hares and foxes.

A specimen that lived at the Zoo some years ago consumed a 41l>. joint, a day, and heralded the approach of his official meal by loud and uncouth cries not unlike those emitted by an infuriated bear.

Among the collection of snakes received recently from Singapore is a specimen of the so-called "two-headed snake, burrowing species with a short, rounded tail which exactly resembles the head in shape.

The snake would appear to be well aware of this extraordinary resemblance, since when worried it digs its head into the earth and, adopting "tails up" as its motto, raises its tail several inches from the ground in such a manner that any casual observer would imagino that the tail was the head, and think the reptile be threatening to strike. The natives declare that the snake has a head at each end of the body, and that the one end sleeps while the other watches.