FOOD EXPERIMENTS AT THE LONDON ZOO

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 150, 14 March 1918, Page 5

FOOD EXPERIMENTS AT THE LONDON ZOO

ELEVHANT STEAK,

(By Twells Brtx, in the "Daily Mail.") Visiting the Zoo tho other da,y I missed my old grotesque jnend the Tibetan Yak. /,. The Yak was not one of tho aininWe people of tho Zoo. . But once, trying to make friends with tho \ak 1 called him, quite by hazard (I had tried "Bob" and all the other Handy names), "Mooch—Mooch." The grotesque one shambled hastily to me. rheiiceroiward we worf. friends->vrth nwervations on Mooch's part. Once I gave him an apple, and he kissed mo; another time I gave him a banana, anil he tried to gore me. A pang went through mo when 1 saw the empty paddock. People at the Zoo usually only "move house when they move to the happy minting prounds where there are no iron bars. Foi confirmation ni my surmise I. sought that official of tlin Zoo known as "the butcher." No big animal passes out of the ken of the Zno hie without coming after tho piul (or to hasten the end humanely) to Joe the butcher. I found .100 with his .friend tho storekeeper. "Has the Yax come your way.' I asked. Joe is not sentimental over Zoo deceases. "Yes," lie iinswwed, he passed in his cheek last Sunday." "Did we help him, Joe?" asked the storekeeper nonchalantly. "No," said Joe, "ho turned it up

by himself." ITe addressed me sympathetically. "If you had come her'! half an hour sooner you could have had a last look at him —or some of him; his ribs have just gono to the bears." "How would Yak do as human food?" I inquired; ''I have heard that a keeper here has been making experiments with giraffe. ,, "Let ii ; m make them," said the storekeeper coldly. "β-emombcr that buffalo, Joe?" * ' Joe told the tale of how he and the storekeeper tried buffalo steak. "We read somewhere that buffalo steak is a dish for kings " "Glad I'm not a king," said the storekeeper. "Took hours t<) skin it," resumed Joe. "Then we had to cook it for hours. When we tried to carve it the edge of the knife turned in "

"Reckon kings don't, know indigestion;" broke in the storekeeper. "Tough! Why, yovi couldn't hammer it out, let aloiie cut it. You could have solod your hoots for everlasting wear with the tonderest cuts. AVe used it up for malr'ng hinges for rabbit hutches."

"Remember that camel?" asked Joe,

Tho storekeeper made an expressivo gesture. "We tried camel once. I wonder if kings eat camel? Them wasn't an ounce of fat on him."

"Kxcppt the hump," corrected Joe. "And that was one big lump of it." Last Sunday was a memorable day at the Zoo for "passing in checks." Besides poor old "Mooch" the Zoo lost a zebra and the biggest elephant. "Forty-ono years in the gardens," said the storekeeper, "was old Saffracooly. Five shots with a Martini-

Henry, and at .the first three shots she never even blinkod an eyelid. Boiled her twelve hours—two tons of food for the lions."

"Did you try elephant? I've heard that elephant's foot is " "A dish .for lungs? Let 'em have it!" said Joe. "But I won't say that all animals that human beings jib at are not good Jo renting? As for horso steak (wo were talking in the storekeeper's stable and Joe made a diagram with his finger on the horse), you cut it out just here and nowhero else—and it's as good as any boef steak that over walked.'.' _>• The horse turned round distrustfully and showed the whites of its eyes at Joe. "I'm told that parrot's good—roast parrot," said the storekeeper meditatively. "Of course, in these times " "And what about armadillo and porcupine?" 1 suggested. "Men who have camped in the tropics say that it is food for " "Kings?" interposed the storekeeper dubiously. "No, for gods," I resumed, "liavon t you ever tried it?" "Not so far," said Joe. "But as you say, Bill, in these times—. By the bye, the old zebu looks like 'going out , next week."