RACCOON IN DISGRACE

Evening Star, Issue 21742, 9 June 1934, Page 5

RACCOON IN DISGRACE

Raccoons are tree-loving creatures, and'so expert climbers, and in the Regent’s Park Gardens are housed in an enclosure near the lion house. Their home, which is surrounded by a ditch with deeply-curved coping, is Inrnished with a tree, and there they are usually to be seen sitting on one of the branches. They are secure prisoners, and when last summer it was decided to have a colony of raccoons at Whipsnade great caro had to be taken to provide them with a similar enclosure in the country zoo. The animals duly moved in, and until recently none of them got into mischief or attempted to climb out of their home. But one day one of them was seized with a sudden desire to travel, and somehow or other he managed to get out of the enclosure. And although he was missed almost immediately, and a great hue and cry was raised, he disappeared. The whole park was searched, but nothing was seen or heard of him for a fortnight, and then he was found in the yard of a warehouse in Dunstable. The fugitive looked extremely well after his fortnight’s holiday, but such escapades as this cannot be encouraged, and he was not sent back to Whipsnade. , The Zoo’s humming birds are now housed more attractively than ever, for the Zoo has been lent a collection of orchids, and the brilliant little avians can be seen darting iu and out of these exotic flowers. The lighting of the den has also been improved by means ol footlight effects. In addition there is a decorative orange table lamp, which casts a soft pleasant glow over the cage. These birds „ are • so tiny that many visitors have speculated as to their weight. It is interesting to learn that seven humming birds together weigh exactly an ounce. Zoo foster mothers are not often criticised, because when an animal voluntarily adopts the orphaned , offspring of another member of her tribe she performs a great .service. But there is one foster mother in the menagerie just now who is proving too zealous. Some weeks ago a little macaque monkey three months bid arrived at the Zoo. He was wearing a woollen jumper for warmth, and was so pathetically small and helpless that he was ordered off to the hospital. But when the keeper was removing the woollen jumper he noticed that a female macque monkey in a near-by cage was taking such an interest in the proceedings that the keeper took him to her From that moment she adopted the orphan and treated him as her own, carrying him about, keeping him clean, and providing him , with the pick of their food rations. But nqw, though the bnbv is fully old enough to look after himself, his foster mother will not let 'him go. Instead of learning to be selfreliant bo is still a baby, entirely dependent on bis devoted foster mother.