VARIED TASKS

Wanganui Chronicle, 7 January 1947, Page 8

VARIED TASKS

DUTIES OF ZOO STAFF Auckland, Jan. 1. Filing an elephant's toenails, extracting a monkey’s teeth, shortening a leopard’s claws or preparing individual diets for each of the animals at the Auckland Zoo are all in a day's work for the curator, Lieutenantconoel E. R. Sawer, and his staff. Every day hundreds of pounds of food are carefully prepared in the zoo’s kitchen. Potatoes and carrots have to be cooked, fish has to be cleaned, bread, lettuce, carrots and some of the meat have to be chopped up, and quantities of bran, chaff and oats have to be weighed. The amount of food needed each week at the zoo would feed the average family for a year. Five and a-half meat carcasses, 1961 b of fish, 11001 b of bread, 2001 b of carrots and two cases of lettuce are prepared for the animals. In addition, half a ton of chaff, a quarter of a ton each of bran and crushed oats, two hundred-weight of wheat eight bales of hay and small quantities of potatoes, apples and bananas when in season and peanuts a re needed each week.

Thursday is a meatless day fv the carnivorous animals. Once a week their meat is soaked in cod liver oil to help them build up resistance against the Auckland weather.

Monkeys are favoured guests at the zoo. For breakfast they receive bread and milk and lunch consists of chopped carrots and some delicacy such as apples or bananas. Peanuts, lettuce, fruit and bread are served for dinner. Gibbons and spider monkeys, which are the most delicate at the zoo, get boiled potatoes in addition to the normal meals. The hippopotami are given a mixed meal of bran, chaff and hay. Nada the Lily, who presented the zoo with a baby a fortnight ago, receives large quantities of grass in addition. The deer have only chaff and hay, while the kangaroos, wallabies, wombats and rabbits are served hulled oats, chopped carrots and bread for breakfast and hay and green feed in the evening.

Milk and finely-chopped meat are given to the small cats in the morning, while cooked fish is served in the evening. The leopards, tigers, lions, the dogs and the raccoons are given only one meal of raw meat a day. Jumuna, the elephant, has bran for breakfast, and then as a lunch-cum-dinner, for she eats all day, has bamboo shoots, bread, hay, and grass. She eats about seven bales of hay a week. The brown and black bears are meat, bread and lettuce, while the polar bear has meat and fish for his meal. The one remaining sea lion at the zoo exists entirely on fish. Over 201 b of fish daily is served to him, one meal in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Most economical of the animals at the zoo is the cassowary. Rats, which abound at the zoo, are her favourite dish. As an appetiser, she also receives soaked bread and bran. The birds are fed from rat-proof bins which automatically supply as much food as the bird wants. The carnivorous birds ore given chopped meat, while most of the others get sunflower seeds, apples, bananas, lettuce, and broken biscuits. land; sails late Jan. for London, via Sydney, Panama and Curacao. RUAHINE (N.Z.S. Co.), at Auckland; sails mid-.lan. for London, via Panama Canal and Curacao. SOMERSET (Federal Co.), at New Plymouth; sails Jan 30 for London and Avonmouth. via Panama Canal. SYDNEY STAR (Blue Star Line), at Auckland: sails Jan. 11 for Antwerp and London, via Panama and Curacao. ! WAIPAWA (Shaw. Savill). due Wellington Jan. 20; sails Fob. 15 for London and Liverpool, via Panama and Curacao. WAIWERA (Shaw. Savill), loads at Napier Jan. 20; sails Feb. 15 for London and Liverpool, via Panama and Curacao. INTF.RCOI.ONIAI AND ISLANDS AMBASSADOR (Union Co.), from Sydney, at Auckland. FORT PIC (Union Co.', from Sydney, at Auckland HARTLEPOOL (Union Co.', left Mel boom'-. Dee. 17 for Cape Thcvenard. Adelaide, thence Jan. 14 for Wellington. Lyttelton and DunKAREI’U (Union Co.), at Bluff. thence Oamaru. Lyttelton. Svdney. KUROW (Union Co.). from Edilhburg. stenhousc Bar and Adelaide, leaves Melbourne Jan. 15 for Auckland and Portland KARITANE (Union Co.), from Port Pirlo, at Wellington. KAURI (Un'on Co.), leaves R’’iff about Jan. 9 for Edilhburg. Slenhouse Bay. Adelaide. Dunedin. Auckland MATUA (Uni -i C-y ' leaves Auckland Jan. ’) for Fiji. Tonga. Suva. MAUI I’OA’ARE (Un’rn Co.', left Auckland f;:’Y 2. for Rarotonga. Niue and Apia. MOUNTPARK (Union Co.). at Bowen (C>.,...-n-innd', thonoo Mack*"' n”'l Auckland. NARBADA (Union Co.) at Auckland, thence Wellington (Jan. 15), Lyttelton, Timaru. Dunedin. Bluff. FMAMAUA (Un’on Co.', from Port Kombla and Svdnnv; n t Wellington, thence Lyttelton nnd Dunedin. SAMNERRA (Union Co.), al Wellington. STANKELD i Union Co.). at Auckland. WAIJ’EVO (Union Co.', nt Wellington. WAIT.'KK<U'-’en (’->,'. from Bhiff. arrived 'le!bo".rne .(■>»> thence J -n. 10 for Dunedin. J,-t'< ".>n. We ,li ngtnn and Bluff. ’ WAITEMATA <Un-m ’•■m San Francisco: al Auckland, tlience Wellington.