The Animals Come in One by One

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 394, 10 January 1947, Page 6

The Animals Come in One by One

"DOES it, would it, will it bite?" That, and nothing more, seemed to be what the crowd of children wanted to know first when Tiger Tim, the Wellington Zoo’s five-months-old cub, visited Station 2ZB’s studio the other Friday afternoon. Tim was there to illustrate the first talk in the hew session, News from .the Zoo, by the curator, C. J. Cutler. After he had been patted and stroked, Tim was exhibited on a table behind the plate-glass window of the stidio for close-up views, and there he lay, looking as bored as only a young cub can. Mr. Cutler was half-way through his talk when Tim himself answered the children’s initial question emphatically by taking a tidy titbit out of a keeper’s hand. "Oooo," said the children. "That’s nothing," said one of the three keepers-not the bitten one. The first session apparently caused much interest. Mr. Cutler wrote to 2ZB that on the following Saturday the Zoo takings rose 50 per cent. and on the Sunday by 70 per cent. The session, which is on the air every Friday and Saturday at 5.15 p.m., is designed to tell listeners of events at the Zoo from time to time, and something about the birds and animals-more than 1500 of them -that live there. Information is given about new arrivals from overseas, about births at the Zoo, how the animals are fed, how the keepers try to keep them healthy, and how they are treated when

sick. And different inhabitants of suitable size appear as "guest artists" at the sessions. Wellington Zoo has been in the news lately. A few weeks ago lions arrived from Melbourne, and with them were two huanacos-small South American

animals like camels without humps. Other new boarders. include a fine Shetland stallion, and eight queer-looking Chinese fowls. A pair of Demoiselle cranes were recently hatched out, and as far as is known, Wellington Zoo is the only Zoo in the world to rear these delicate birds,