NEW ANIMALS FOR ZOO

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 854, 24 December 1929, Page 9

NEW ANIMALS FOR ZOO

TWO BUFFALOES AND A BEAVER ARRIVE

“MICK” IS A STOIC

Two male buffaloes and a male beaver for the Auckland Zoo arrived in Auckland tills morning from Canada on the cargo steamer Waiotapu. The buffaloes are from a private consign Wainwright. Alberta, and the beaver is from Jasper Park, Alberta, being supplied by the Canadian Department of the Interior.

“Mick,” the beaver, has queer gastronomic tastes. His diet consists of poplar bark, and according to instructions issued by the Jasper Park authorities, he was given four poplar sticks each day of the Waiotapu's voyage. These sticks are about two feet long and about three inches in diameter, and “Mick,” starting at one end, chews the bark off neatly and systematically, working round and round the stick toward the other end. He is a very determined beaver and something of a stoic, for, although he may (as per schedule) have an occasional treat in the way of carrot or cabbage, he rigidly refuses, and, in fact, never even “asks for more” in the way of poplar sticks.

Mick is a beaver of very consistent habits according to Mr. J. Macaulay, tlie ship’s carpenter, who was in charge of the animals. The buffaloes are not so interesting being rather risky creatures to approach. They were housed in stout wooden “buffalo-boxes,” strongly b °m? d to^ether to prevent trouble. The animals were all kept on the after-deck, and when passing through the tropics a shelter was erected to protect them from the sun and special ventilation was provided. Mr. Macaulay had some trouble in keeping curious persons away from the animals while the vessel was at Papeete. Many people there regarded them as a “free show,” and Chinese, Frenchmen, Tahitians and others, brmgmg their wives and families, came aboard the to see the strange