Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-06


Downright 1902 by the New Rserved1
- I'D YOU ever notice where the biggest crowd
gathers in zoo? It's usually about cage
h where there is a baby There is something
y about a "baby anything" that attracts a crowd
as drop of molasses draws flies in the sum-
mertime Women exclaim, How cute! How sweet!
Men don't say much, but smile, and children crane
their little necks suuirm and push and lose all man
ners in their eagerness to see the infant animal
But babies always whoop things up, no matter what
kind they are and the would lose its attrac-
ton for the pleasure seeking populace were 1t not
livened up now and then by the advent of new baby
Human babies are not scarce enough yet to make an
exhibit in the menagere, but from some doeful pre-
dictons it may still to pass There's sameness
to a human nursery but ZOO nursery! That's dlher-
ent! There's end to the variety here-four legged
babies and two legged babies smooth ones and fluffy,
woolly ones great big and "teeney- ones
babies that live in the water and dry land babes all
fed and bbbed and mothered in the best possible way
1t keeps a very watchfu nurse and his assistants
busy all of ten hours day and often some nights
TO look after the babies in nursery. For if a
baby happens to be born in the night time the
keeper sits up and watches. Most of the animal
mothers most careful of their young. but some
times they step on lie down upon the little one by
accident which if it happens to elephant or hippo
potamus, means a funeral for the "kid." SO to
guard against such catasrophes 1t is sometimes nee
essary to keep night light burning
For instance, after baby hippopotamus is born
there is a keeper with him night and day for
month A baby hippopotamus looks like neatly up
holsered trunk of the prehistoric kind, with square
head on end and four very short legs which
might pass for rollers casters His leather hide
is a purplish blue and wrinkles with fat about his
neck, in true baby fashion, and he weighs one nun
dred pounds at his BIRTH
Mrs Murphy, of Central Park, is the mother of
ten babies some of which died, but the survivors
are the only hippos raised in this country or
across the water, for that matter. The huge hippo
Fatima of Rngling's circus and the Bronx ZOO, and
Caliph H. of the Central Park Zoo, are Mrs. Muir
phys children. worth many thousand dollars Caliph
H.. although only year old baby, would bring as
much as four or five thousand dollars any Que
hearess enough to take him away from his mamma.
For he is still very much of baby, and spoiled to
death by both her and his nurse" who are both
proud of him because of his sweet nature and un-
usual intelligence.
When She Spanked Him.
TO look at his baby hulk he seems dull, but catch
the nischevous gleam in his beady little eyes and
you see a lively love of teasing in him. Every time
Mrs Murphy makes a to side he backs
over in her direction. She enjoys the fun for Il
while but finally gives him a mothery reprmand in
the form of sharp bite, which sends him hunching
into the tank. Sometimes be plays water horse"
with her. until she gets exasperated and spanks him
well.
Baby hppos nurse their mothers until they are
about three years old unless they weaned and
only under water. This strange fact was not real
ized by keepers with the first hippo baby, who dis
covered the phenomenon having fenced off hippo
and its baby The sad consequence that the baby
died of starvation, he refused to take nourish-
above water n
fed-For breakfast two quarts of bran three loaves
of bread with apples peeled and cut in small pieces
mixed and softened with water He is fed by hand,
and at the age of one year, when he begins to
his teeth he is either too lazy or does not know
enough to "open wide"
OF all the interesting pets in zoo is the soft,
fuzzy, yellow ball of lion cub, spotted all Of
the and deer family at BIRTH baby lioness is just
like the big kitten In "Alice in Wonderland" Her
eyes are shut tight and she is helpless and squrmy,
and struggles up to her mother when given her own
way After five six days baby lioness' eyes open
and she begins to crawl feeby about her crib filed
with soft mould four inches deep.
For all the cubs of the wild cat family must be cared
for in this fashion account of their soft little bones
meant to live in the responsive jungle. While the
mother her cub she Is fed phosphate of lime
her for its hardening effect the bone
the baby and the mould Is kept bottom of the
cage for two years, spaded up every month to
keep it clean and soft If not the cubs legs become
bowed with children who are allowed to walk too
soon At the age of two months little white teeth be-
gin to peep through the meon-Pnk gums and then
look out for danger!
At the age of six months the cub is weaned and
given his first rib of a with most of
the meat scraped off, little cooked meat and
soup, which he laps up like tame kitten The keeper
that the cub is kept lean that he does not
too heavy for his tender legs.
The Baby Monkey.
But if you wish TO see a truly model family go to
the monkey house and ask the newest baby Some
times he's hard to see closely his mother hug
him to her. hiding his tiny body from the eager