ANIMAL ESCAPOLOGIST

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5312, 27 January 1947, Page 3

ANIMAL ESCAPOLOGIST

AUSTRALIAN POgCUPINES GET GEST OUT OF ANYTHIlNfG. CORAKI. An agile and "determined porcupine or spiny ant-eater, has added further lustre to the records of one of Australia's most celebrated families of native "escapologists." Mr. Gordon Yahsley, of Coraki, caught a fully grown porcupine so that he could observe its hahits in eaptivity. The animal was placed in a fourgallon tin covered wtih a sheet of iron. The tin was put into a 12gallon copper, and the lid was weighted down with bricks. A few hours later, Mr. Yabsley tok a frierid to see the captive, but the porcupine had; vanished. I Mr. Ellis Troughton, mammalogist at the Australian Museum, said that experts acquainted with the remarkable muscular development and agility of spiny ant-eaters were never surprised at their feats. Although little larger in the feody

than a rabbit, this animal was able to exert extraordinai'y leverage, in which it seemed to be aided by its numerous quills. , A classic instance of this had been reported from F.outh Australia, where a zoologist had shut an arx-eater in his kitchen oyernight, The following morning, it was f ound that the animal had moved.a heavy dresser, table, chairs, and 'boxes from the walls towai'ds the centre of the room. The only object he had not shifted was the fixed gas stove. Mr. Trough'ton added a warning that the spiny ant-eater is a protected animal, and it is an offenee either to keep or to kill oqe.