RHINOCEROSES WORTH £2OOO EACH

Taranaki Daily News, 23 February 1935, Page 15 (Supplement)

RHINOCEROSES WORTH £2OOO EACH

LONDON ZOO’S PRICE LIST IS FOR EXPENSIVE TASTES ‘ T’HE most valuable inmates of the London Zoo are the fullgrown Indian rhinoceroses, which are estimated to be worth £2OOO each. At the other end of the list lions are valued at only from £2O to £3O each, and any bear, except the grizzly, can be bought for £3O. The “joint value” of Mok and Moina, the famous gorillas, is put at £ 1200. A good riding elephant cannot be bought under £5OO, but she is a sound investment, as she will earn £250 a year. A newly imported giraffe, 12ft in height, costs £250, but after it has passed through one winter in captivity its price rises to £5OO. Chimpanzees vary from £3O to ■ £ 100, according

to their size, while tigers cost anything from £75 to £lOO, The most expensive birds are king penguins. They cost £75 apiece. A young ostrich is considered cheap at £5O. As there is difficulty in import-

ing cassowaries, they cost as much as £5O, even in their youth. Snakes are valued according to length, and a python of 6ft to 12ft costs £1 a foot. Over £2oft the price a foot rises enormously, and the Zoo’s 28ft python is worth £lOO. Alligators and crocodiles are priced according to the number of years they have survived, and for once age is at a premium. George, the centenarian alligator, is valued at £ 100, but small specimens can be bought for £2 or £3. - These interesting facts are revealed by the annual census and valuation of the Zoo’s inhabitants. Apart from fish and insects, the inmates of the menagerie consist of nearly 2000 birds, some 900 mammals and over 1200 reptiles.