Night at the Zoo.

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 76

Night at the Zoo.

■ — Troubles of the Keepers in the "Wee Sm'a' 'Oors."— When, the birds and beasts of a big zoo

are tucked -up in bed and made cosy .for the night, so to speak, the troubles of the keepers are by no means over. Every up-to-date zoo is pa-trolled 1 by a large force of night watchmen, and in many institutions tht^o men are armed with revolvers, for use only in the last extremity if dangerous animals escape. A telephone-bell is tisually fixed by the .bedside of every ■ curator jan'd 'keeper, and. is connected with various parts of the grounds,, so that the- watchmen inayspecdily call them 4f they are needed. • .

"And we are jOften called ixpj I. can assureyou):" a "keeper- 1 recently said, to the writer. "It is not. as a rule, because an animal has"" escaped, but .because two beasts ip the same cage have started fighting, or "Because a sick animal seems to have' become worse." Only a few weeks ago I had to get up oiit of my beauty sleep to compose a Hftle difference between the hyenas- TKey were haying quite a tidy scrap when I got to the cage, and I went in with n. whip -and an iron bar. Hyenas are not nice brutes to handle. I quieted them before any , were, kifled, but it Spoiled my sleep that, night. "Oh-, yes, we keepers "have to go into the cages very often by night and day. We must know as much about mana-gins wild beaste as any trainer in a circus, and even' more about keeping them in health. There's only one beast whose cage I wouldn't care to enter, and that's the black panther — the most ferocious and treacherous animal on this earth.

" A black panther nearly got locee one night aT, a zoo where I was a watchman. H-e dislodged a bar, and nearly squeezed through before he was seen. We got him back by hitting him on the nose, but his rage was simply terrible. If he had broken loose hp could never have been taken alive. Ho would have had to be shot, and might ha/c bagged one or two of us first. " Th-3 carnivora seldom manage to get out of their cages, for they are too closely prisoned ; but deer, antelope, mountain sheep, and other more or less harmless creatures, which are allowed a Jarjrer space to roarr; about in, are frequently found wandering loose at night. They p-ive us a, fine chase sometimes, but not much trouble -when wo do manage to bring them to bay.

" I never knew an elephant cause^ worry after it was time for bed. That sagacious beast very prooerly thinks that night wa3 made to sleep in. But the monkeys are a perfect pest. Midnight seems to be their favourite time for a fight, and when monkeys fight they fight to kill one another.

"In all mv experience in England and .Ireland — -which has covered nearly 25 years — I have never known an animal to escape at night from the grounds of any zoo where I worked, but there have been several narrow sqpeaks. A liones3 nearly got into the streets some years ago from a zoo in a northern town — I won't mention the place, because we ajl took an oath to keep quiet about it. A keeper whipped the brute back just as it was jumping on the wall, and we caught it in a -net. " The most remarkable escape on record, I think, was that of a snow leopard at the Bronx Zoo in New York about four years aax>. This animal, which is, found in the Himalayas, is exceedingly rare and valuable. It is also very 'savage. Especial precautions were taken to keep it secure, at the Bronx, but it managed to get loos<% about 1 in the morning. A large staff of keepers hunted it for ar couple of hours all over the large gronndsr' It, killed two antelopes and attacked a buffalo, but was finally repulsed.

" Then it escaped into the streets, and <hp poliofl joined In the hunt. A constable found ir, crouched on top of a doorstep three miles from the zoo. and shot it dead with hi-i revolver." — London Answers.