STIRRING TIMES AT THE zoo.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1680, 21 February 1913, Page 6

STIRRING TIMES AT THE zoo.

» . " '' ■■ SOME RECENT ARRIVALS. ' THE TWO LION CUBS. . AND OTHER LITTLE STRANGERS. THE ART COMPETITIONS. [By John Croiroa, presidentof the Wellington Zoological Society.] !' Early in tha morning of Sunday! February 16; two little lions were, born in the palace of-'King'Dick"'and his royal consort in tlio 'Wellington Zoo. At this event ICing Dick's friends tiro highly elated about our'royal friend. Of course I am in opposition ? to , the, detractions which some well-intefltionod critics" had olTOulated about or royal friend. Qf courso I am specially .pleased, ;because I set myself up as a-public prognossticator, only three ■weeks ago, when ,tho Dominion, published, piy somewhat ; pretentious paragraph oil ■ forecasts," and-now",l,oan say .that the birth of tho yoring! lions have wrified the principal one.of my, suggestions, one at feast of. the young parrakeets of which I , wrote hasappenred, rind none of my prognostications has' utterly ■ failed. , Another. Great Verification. : Throughout tha,: civilised portion, of the ' woild conflicting .emotions have during ijjie last week- been strongly felt'in in-, r.t-merablo. hearts. A great sorrow has ■> ': throbbed, o'tfreat joy-not the less powerful because solemn and sombre. : has surged, a great sense; of satisfaction has pro.l dominated. These emotions have been caused by. .the feports • brought to us by I. the men of tie Terra' Nbva. Captain and his band of noble explorers died ; tig heroes die," a death that-makes of the grave 1 a :throno; towards which all emperors "bow, and republics feel proud to ■ yield obeisaase. The heroes wore Englishmen; and we aro patriotically proud of them, but . "they'were greater, grander, , stronger, than; mere Englishmon—they . - rwere in the truest, broadest, most genuine, and' exalted sense, cosmopolitan. . They could not bo tho first to discover the' South' Pole; but they could do I .what was almost of equal importance: they could confirm tha' fact that tho Pole was discovered bjr..:Aimindsen; and handsomely they did-it, and , died. Now, while the iWollingion Zoological Society shares the porrow that is'felt: at the'death of 'Cap-, tain' Soott, we are glad theit, while, ho llvfd, Captain Scott provided the means to 'render doubly sure the assurance: we felt .when. Amundsen was here that the tand .ithafc . wrote the autograph. that, ; at tho request* of our society, has, by the •Wellington Cite' Council, been placed in tho Newtown Museum, was tho first hand to orora-with Vthe glory- of human conquest the glistening brow of the southern ' world. • . ■ ■ •• , .. :: ' lionesses and Cubs. .'v ; When a:Christchnrch man speaks of the glories of the "City of the Plains," he speaks as' though all ; the ducks ,on tho Avon seemed to him ; to'be as big as but generally :when a .Wellington' man speaks of the wonders Of the' metro- : nolis .of , : New Zealand, ho speaks, as • though our' ostriches seemed to; him to ' bo only. ; as big as bantams. Exhilarating . 'it therefore' is,' .to read in 'Wellington 1 newspapers that our lion cubs, two-days'- ' old, are valued at fifty sovereigns each. - . I will not ;stny"'to discuss "the intrinsic' valueiof lion cubs,' but this may be said,; * ■■ ■ tlio people of Wellington, to their hon- . our be it said, would not, just now, vote for either of . our welcome little visitors to be ; .6'old i .for fifty . pounds.- And . now, ' .when'imaiiV of'the 'of The Domin-' - ion are. thiifeiifig about lions, and wherever I go people are calling, out: "Mr. Crowes, 'How ; are the twins?'" it may bo interesting to' compare the experience ! of the promoters of .the Wellington Zoo with the experience of the Dublin ; ZooV logical Society,' the most successful breed- : era of lions in modern times. Up to the vsar 1907 i there had been born in the ■ bublin garden 248 lion cubs. In 1855 the garden bought a pair:<;of lions from Natal. In 1858,. ..three years.•after'th«ir. : arrival in Dublin, this pair had_ avlitter of a single cub,-the same year a second litter, of four cubs, and the next year a third litter of five. .. .■ \ • •

"Old Girl" and "Quesn." From .this . litter came "Old Girl," a ( lioness wlebrated ■at Dublin, who. lived for sixteen years in the'garden, and i ■ died there after, having given birth: to 55 . \ cubs «i f 13 litters. 'TJp to 1889 eighty- i nine lioils from tho Dublin Zoo had.been i ■ sold, 'bringing. 10s./ ah averase of I iC36 pei;-,head.' Towards the. end of this | ■period"" another well-known lioness, ] ■'Queen," was.born;.who,np to 1907, had i given birth' to 28 cubs. ; It is only fair ; to notice, however, that of' tho 131: cubs born up to 1885, twenty-one <Jied either i at birth*o'r jvhilo -under maternal care, ; i * . and thirteen .died,afterwards.'ltwill,,he i i 'seen then-that in the first two years of I having a, pair,, of lions in our Zoo, the i ' success has been greater , than that of the . Dublin .Society in .their first two .years.| i But in estimating tho value of • yonng i lions wo must take into account the un- ' :■ ■ certainty of-'rearing tTwin, "as seen in the light of the Dublin, expedience. I con- i 'gratulate Mr.' Langridge on/his success : ■ nitherto, and' feel ■ assured that if, by as- : siduous attention our young lions;can be ; rtared they will ■be kept alive and in good condition; but that too much may , >- not be expected I have given a report of the experience of the most successful establisliment for the breeding of lions, the modern world lias,yet .seen. . Smiling Again. , Just when I had reported the.shilling from Shannon and the rejoicing of Treasurer Castle about the half-sovereign from . Gisbome, up came 'our' ; worthy 'treasurer; with his face again-as radiant as a mad- ■ summer morning, for eight shillings had : ' ■ ■ ' come down from interested -friends who had evidently been reading The Domini ion .at Marton. Thanks', for the; eight 'shillings. The prizes we are offering for Wie art competitions amount to .68 Bs. Gentlo readers kindly' keep on sending shillings to the treasurer of the . " . Wellington Zoological. Society,. Mr. .T. Castle, Chemist, Riddiford Street, New- ; ■ iown. " • A Good Record, But a Little Mistake. In my last notes I intimated what my tociety had dono since the end of our last financial year.' That moved some person to put over my article the heading. "A Year's Good "Work"; but I am glad tft-bo able to tell tho readers of Thr Dominion that • only., about■' a third of our nresent financial year has yet passed. We hopo to put in very .much moro good work beforo' we report the year's results. Important Historic Event.' The birth of tho young Hons has recently overshadowed all tho other events which have recently taken placo in Newtown Park. 'But even more gladdening than the birth of tho lions was, to me, the start of the art competitions that have been inaugurated by tho Zoological Society with tho co-operation of tho New Zealand Academy, of Pine Arts. Ono of my strongest desires lately has been to seb art students sketching tho animals of our Zoo, and on Monday morning I had tho happiness of seeing what I had so earnestly d-osired. Now, I want for all the readers of The Dominion to 6end to Mr. Castle shillings or sixpences towards our fund for the of our fino arts prize fund, or to buy tickets from mo for the great benefit entertainments the Star Pieturo 'Company at Newtown is' giving in aid of tho great fund for the Newtown State School, and the prize fund of the Wellington Zoological Society to-night. Now Arrivals in the Zoo. Since T wrote last there have been born. in tho Zoo, lions, marmosets, and hedge-. ho"<. Tliß voting lions have caused great excitement/although but vory few persons havo "sen them. The marmosets nro nlj wavs interesting to keen observers who oau find them; but.they afford a wonderful illustration of colour protection. I have, within the last week, seen eager lookers looking into a w-ell-llghted ca£o in which a little marmoset had tv/o fine young ones round her so closely and! in such a natural arrnDtfoment ol

colour that the searcher could not see either of the little baby jockeys j:hat were thero riding steeplechases on the back of their ugilo little mother. The young hedgehogs are equally interesting; but they are not so exposed to view, or apparent danger. Then, besides the/additions by birth, other additions have appeared—a young enui, the youngest ever seen in our Zoo; a wallaby; a Himalayan hoar; a striped hyiena; n cheetah, or hunting leopard; and a pair of Australian wood swallows. Another Eye-opener I , "Can they see?". This is a question that has been put to me in'tho street and on the bank of the bowling green, and wheresoever else interested and - interesting inquirers have asked about the young lion cubs that have been freely talked about, but not very generally seen. I answer that when 1 was young, and Caswll's publications were among tho most highly esteemed of all, Casseil's popular Natural History told us that it was said that young lions "are born blind." I have lately, however, seen a natural history which tells me . that the eye 3 of young Hons are open when they are born. I have'asked Mr. Langridge to judge between: the two authorities, and he, with the caution that an eminently practical and successful keeper of animals always evinces, tells me that our young lions could see before they were,two days old; but that he did not notice so as to remember whether their eyes were open or not on i the 'day of their birth. I therefore think that although the lion is of tho cat family, young lions can seo soon after they aro born. Latest Bulletin. The lioness is well, and the twins are said to bo in splendid condition. The curator thinks they are a male and a female, but does not speak positively on this matter. Readers of my notes will notice that they do not exactly agree with some statements published in other papers. The explanation is that I write faots, and loave fiction to my contemporaries. - -