The Zoo’s Bill-of-Fare.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1, 6 July 1907, Page 23

The Zoo’s Bill-of-Fare.

A remarkable insight into the variety and quantity of food, ranging from goats to monkey-nuts, consumed in tho menagerie at Regent’s Park is obtained from the report of the Zoological Society of London for 1906, recently issued. The total cost of the food last year was £3,856 —an increase of £337 compared with the previous year. Some of the more remarkable items in the bill are as follows: —

Horses 216, goats 246. beef 22241b5., flounders 40151b5., plaice 12,1871b5., fresh herrings 70121b5., whiting 90,2541b5., shrimps 2555 pints, potatoes 119cwts., cress 1387 bunches, apples 27 cases, oranges 6456, Brazil nuts 1051b5., lettuce 790 doz., onions 53 bunches, fowl heads 34,282, bread 5946 qtns., fresh milk 743 gals., reserved milk 2800 tins, eggs 28,693, biscuit 388cwts., meat extract 76 jars, carrots 93cwts. and 990 bunches, bananas 4589 do., grapes 24141b5., mon-key-nuts 35cwts., Spanish nuts 18pks., lemons 612, marrows 65. There is an increase in some of these quantities as compared with the previous year, due partly to their being more animals and partly to the rations of many having been increased.

An addition of over £6O to the fruit bill is due to there having been a larger number of fruit-eating birds and small mammals, while the quantities of fruit and potatoes supplied to the monkeys were raised.

The riee and preserved milk were required for the young elephant, the young Indian and African rhinoceroses, and for the young hippopotamus. The larger number of sea lions and the penguins account for the increased consumption of fish.

Beef has been required partly because on one occasion the supply of horses failed, and because it has been found that the Siberian tigers, presented by the Duke of Bedford, thrive better on beef than on horse flesh. The general health of the animals has been good. The most serious loss was that of the large female giraffe. There has been a notable improvement in the health of the monkeys since the monkey-house was disinfected and repaired. None the less, the report states, the health of those kept in open air cages, without artificial heat, has l>ecn markedly better than that of the inhabitants of the houses.

It is interesting to note that the total value of the animals in the Zoo is estimated at £ 17,042. The number of visitors during the year was 896.423, the largest number on record, with the exception, of 1876, when the numbers reached 915,764.