ACTIVITIES IN ZOO

Hokitika Guardian, 22 July 1933, Page 6

ACTIVITIES IN ZOO

3NTERESTING DETAILS DF BIRDS LOVE, COMEDY, AND DRAMA A domestic drama, over which there haunts the spectre of tragedy, is proceeding' in the emu enclosure at the Auckland Zoological Park. There ai' e nine eggs in the nest in the reed house and, in accordance with the torpsy-tur-vy law of the emus, it is the male emu who is sitting on them. It is only a stone’s throw to the outer wall of the Zoological Park, where relief workers arc using explosives to carve a road out of the solid rock. Each explosive reverberates through the park and shakes the ground, and the keepers fear that the detonations wilt kill the young before they are hatched. The emu commenced sitting on the eggs 0 11 Friday, and they will take from 50 to 60 days to hatch. The parent birds who become so obsorbed in their task that they often forget their meal hours have to be coaxed to take their J food during this long period.

COURTSHIP OF LOVE-BIRDS The aviaries are very active at present, for it is the mating season for. the ornamental little budgerigars, or lovebirds, and some of the larger species of tropical birds arc busy nesting. The increasing popularity of the budrigar as a small cage-bird, largely taking the place of the canary, accounts for their cage being a favoured corner of the zoo with bird-lovers.

It is a comical sight to see these brillianthvliued birds ranged in pairs along the twigs of a tree, like a child’s coloured picture-book of the entry of the creatures into the Ark. The urge of courtship appears to have affected hundreds of them simultaneously, all partners have been annexed, and accommodation in the nesting-boxes ot empty coconuts is taxed to overcrowding. The air is filled with an excited twittering that can be heard 100 yards

away. The black swans, too, are busy nesting, and the pond in the centre of the park which they inhabit is a scene of intensive activity. Squadrons of beautiful black swans sail majestically in circles round the reed-fringed island, craning their long shiny necks and giving tongue in swan language. Nests have to be fashioned among the reeds round the island,, and several can be seen already. The keepers are hopeful of breeding as many young swans as were reared successfully last year. THE SOWER BIRD’S COMEDY One 0 f tlie quaintest birds in the zoo is the satin bower bird, which comes from the eastern and nothern parts of Australia. The male bird, a sturdy specimen flaunting deep blue plumage, has built a little bower out of willow ends thrown into the enclosure by the keepers. It looks like a nest, hut the funny thing : 'about it is that he Ims built it exclusively for his own amusement, and his consort is rigorously banned from using it. This is the bower bird’s secret. When the female, whose plumage is green, gets an opportunity she hops up to the bower, full of insatiable curiosity, and commences pulling the sticks up and throwing them to one side. Ait this her husband steps up, full of righteous indignation, and chases her away, leaving him to play his interminable game of running into the bower and out again. It is one of the queerest comedies in the whole of the zco. Not (everyone knows that there is' a special acclimatisation house in the zoo where birds from tropical climates can be removed in very cold weather. It is heated by gas to a temperature approximating that of the equatorial countries from which the birds come. Into this hot-house are turned on very cold nights the macaws and Mexican crows, whose feathery covering is not thick enough to enable them to stand very cold weather. AN ELABORATE DIET One of tile prettiest of the smaller variety of birds is the Pekin robin, which is shaped very like a nightingale and has a beautiful song. A number of these birds which were imported from China, have become throughly acclimatised in Auckland and not a single death has occurred among them. They are supplied with a very elaborate fare for their meals, consisting of biscuit meal mixed with dried flies, ants’ eggs and yolk of egg. They are also given live worms. Among the birds that can afford to laugh at the wintry weather are the eagles. The South African tawny eagle and the bateieur eagle from Abyssinia are living in perfect harmony with a. New Zealand hawk, and none of them seems fo mind the cold. The secretary vultures occupy a separate' enclosure. They are grotesque creafeuresi standing on long legs which are covered with black feathers that have the appearance of stockings, their plumage is a beautiful suede grey and they get tlieir name by reason of the quill-like feathers that project upward from the back of the head. They are extremely active and destructive, and no rat, weasel or bird that ever enters their enclosure escapes alive. They pounce like lightning upon their victim, which is instantly killed by a kick on the head. With the exception of five keas, brought from the Southern Alps, no additions have been made to the aviaries for some considerable time. The zoo authorities are therefore taking the onportunitv of spacing out the exhibits and a number of new enclosures are in course of construction.