Timid Mice and Wild Crocodiles Used By U.F.A. For Nature Studies

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 792, 12 October 1929, Page 27

Timid Mice and Wild Crocodiles Used By U.F.A. For Nature Studies

One of the most interesting featu,r S the lengths to which U.F.A. have gone I sources. Here is a description of ! Neubabelsherg. i After referring to necessary | sacrifices in the cause of film-making, j a German writer says: “lir the ‘warm’ biological section j there live many peculiar and rare [ animals, the names of which are | known only to

the specialist. Here we encounter snakes and snakekillers consequently deadly enemies. If we were to open all | the cages there

j would soon be | no animals left alive, as they would j finish each other off. Almost all the | animals that go to the film school and | become stars or extras are *more or j less voracious.

Crocodiles and Mice i “Here is a hazel-mouse, a nice little j creature, red-brown, with sharp, j snappy eyes and a velvet hide. Her J habitat is in Austria. Now we have j the smallest edition of a squirrel before us. The little animal, that sits i in its teacher’s hand and sniffs fearfully, is being trained here and, after | considerable time, will be ready for the camera.

“Wild and irritated, restless and filled with anger, a porcupine runs to and fro behind the bars of its cage. This is a militant animal, the size of a cat and equipped with sharp quills that stand on end instantly when it is attacked. It comes from Africa. This animal is just the thing for the films, as it is to fight with j rats and show that it has teeth. | “Now Hector is brought out and carried around in the hand. Hector j is a dainty East African crocodile I of pocket size and is called Hector i because his head resembles that of j a dog—with the exception of his eves, of course, which look exactly as if they could shed crocodile tears. This tiny corcodile is a star of the first water and is to appear all by himself. “Naturally, it requires plenty of time to accustom the animals to the ! glare of the Jupiter lamps. Much j depends upon the characteristics of

es of film making on the Continent is in extending and perfecting their retlie company's zoo maintained at the creatures when they are put before the camera. If, for instance, one wants to photograph a family of mice, one fixes up a piece of ground as naturally as possible, with stones, brush, bits of turf and moss, etc., and sets up tbe maebine in the best location. But why should the mouse follow the road selected by her film teacher? How is she induced to enter that particular field? One takes a baby mouse and drags it over the ground from the hole to the desired spot. Now the mamma comes oqt, true to her maternal instinct, to look for her offspring. Thus she unsuspectingly walks in front of the camera. “There is a great deal to be taught and learned in this schoM. It costs great efforts to make even a single ‘shot’ of a nature film. But, in return, one shows a bit of the heart of nature.”