KILLS ONE GOOSE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 176, 5 November 1941, Page 6

KILLS ONE GOOSE

40 HIGH EXPLOSIVE BOMBS

A single goose, a spur-winged bird from Gambia, was the one casualty i'rom 10 high explosive bombs rained by Nazi raiders upon Whipsnade Park, the London Zoo's country home. It was blown up by a direct hit into a shower of feathers. The zebra house in London was wrecked, but the zebras just shook off the rubble ami went on eating'. Other bombs fell near the monkey house and one actually into the aquarium, but neither was destroyed. The blast from 5001b bomb blew up the ravens' cage and the ravens flew into the nearest tree. They fire now roaming about Britain's countryside. Whipsnade Zoo is- 35 miles out in the country but both there and in London the birds and mammals showed a fortitude equal to that of B --Tinman inhabitants. Only among the herd animals, such as deer, has the terrific noise caused occasional stampeding, with the danger of broken legs. Animal lovers all over the world have taken i>p the London Zoo's adoption scheme, by which people "adopt" animals for the duration of the war by paying a weekly fee to cover the food bill. The name of the adopter appears on a special label on the animal's cage. Thus, anyone who wishes may become the fosterparent of an elephant foil- £1 a Aveek and of a tortoise for one shilling. Since the first animal was adopted one month after the outbreak of war —"Whiskers," a binturong (an animal which looks like a small bear with a long' tail) from the Netherlands East Indies—more than 380 animals with fees totalling £3600 have acquired foster-parents all over the world, often in the countries from which the animals originally came. But there is still a wide choice for prospective adopters. From North America there are raccoons, at 2s (kl a week, husky dogs, deer and bears at ss, bison at 7s (id, deer and alligators at 3s (kl, African animals such as baboons, genets and civets can be kept for 2s (kl a week, crocodiles for 3s f>d, h3 r enas, gnus, antelopes, Avild swine, ostriches and pythons for ss, buffaloes for 7s (kl, cheetahs, zebras, rhinoceroses, giraffes and pelicans for 10s, and chimpanzees for 15s. Australasian specimens still open for adoption include cockatoos at 2s (kl a week and emus and dingoes at 5s while there are Indian macaques and mynahs at 2s (kl, blackbuck and Nilghai antelopes and wild swine at ss, rhinoceroses at 10s, tigers at 15s and elephants at £1.