BOSTOCK’S MENAGERIE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21580, 27 February 1932, Page 12

BOSTOCK’S MENAGERIE

A LAST JOURNEY, (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January 21. After 105 years on the road the famous Bostock and Wombwell’s circus and travelling menagerie has ceased to exist. The last show was given at Glasgow on Saturday night, and then the animals, now sold to the London Zoological Society, were entrained for Whipsnade, the country Zoo. On Sunday night the whole show was put on a special train fori the long journey to Dunstable. The two elephants—- “ Dixie ” and “ Rosie ” —were the principal members of the cargo, each with a wagon to herself. In addition to them were 10 Hons, two tigers, a polar bear, two spotted hyenas, two wolves, five leopards, a striped hyena, a brown bear, two dromedaries, and a number of smaller animals and birds. The loading of the train at Glasgow took about six hours, and attracted a great number of people to the railway. At Dunstable another crowd was waiting to see the last lap in Rostock’s long journey. The dromedaries > and the elephants marched in procession from the station to the Zoo at Whipsnade, but the other animals were transported in their covered cages. “ Dixie,” the " star ” elephant of Bostock’s, was given a place in the open air, tethered to a tree near the wagons. Here she took a mild interest in strangers who came to look at her, and occasionally she scraped a little earth up with her trunk, easting it over her head. “Rosie'” was taken to a shed farther along in the park and introduced to “Nejiran, ’ an elephant which, came to Whipsnade from Regent’s Park last year. The two appeared to become _ good friends as soon as they met. “Rosie” is only eight years old, and her new companion ,is 45. Soon, no doubt, “ Rosie ” will join “ Nejiran ” in the task of giving rides to visitors.