ZOO INHABITANTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 February 1939, Page 6

ZOO INHABITANTS

SOME WELCOME ACQUISITIONS IN LONDON. PECULIAR GIANT WEASEL. A leopard cat received at the London Zoo is a welcome acquisition, no specimen of this handsome carnivore having been represented in the Zoological Society’s collection for some years (says the "Observer"). The animal, which is about a year old, was presented by Dr and Mrs J. A. Simpson, of the Medical Research Station at Kuala Lumpur, where i.l was reared on a bottle and kept as a pet. It is consequently very tame. Its general ground colour is a warm gold, handsomely marked with black. The creature is not unlike the South American ocelot, but witii a smaller head, and, like the latter, is arboreal, feeding on birds and small mammals. An astonishing instance of accommodation to circumstances is offered by a tayra, one of the most popular inhabitants of the Small Cat House. This giant weasel of Ecuador, presented last Maj’ by Mr Alfred Ezra, has a reputation for being savage. "Minnie.” as the animal is called, who has become friendly and gentle under skilled handling, possesses a very peculiar trait. She seems to be happy only when sitting or reclining in her water | trough.

So ineradicable is her fondness for a damp seat that when her keeper placed her wafer trough on a tree branch high overhead, she at once climbed into it, leaving a dry trough on the ground below. Minnie is not attempting a home cure for some mysterious ailment, but is merely enjoying the "next best thing" to the water-logged tropic forests that her species frequents. Some months ago the Zoo. being somewhat deficient in rattlesnakes, mentioned the mallei’ to the authorities of the Philadelphia Zoo. As a result over a hundred of these reptile have arrived at the Regent's Park Menagerie. Whilst this example of trans-Atlantic generosity is heartily appreciated, the Curator of Reptiles finds some difficulty in giving adequate accommodation to so many of these reptiles. As a result, it is possible dial any qualified person desirous of obtaining a rattlesnake will be able to do so on advantageous terms.