Evening star., 1936-03-28

DR.. Mann has, according to the last
animal census this Zoo takes one each
June 800, between 1900 and 2,4O0
tenants. And he wants more.
The Zoo is very nice place to go
once in while, but how would you
like to go every day, rain or shine,
Winter or Summer? And how would
you like to run the place? And one
more queStion-how would you run
the place?
Getting right down to cases. how
does this Mann in the Zoo run it?
What does he do all day, just go
around petting his animal friends
the leopards he brought from Africa,
the birds from Central America?
If you're healthy and strong and
curious. come along, we're going for
typical day with him. Well forget
What our mother taught us and We'll
point as we go.
Morning-He sleeps 20 minutes later
than any other Government employe,
he says, because he lives in an apart
ment house just across the street from
the Adams Mill road entrance to the
Zoo. (He'd like to live in the Zoo as
most directors do in Europe.) He
telephones the park. If there is Moth
ing startling needing immediate at
tention at his office, he calls his car
and starts on an early morning in
spection of the park-this about or
9;l5 o'clock.
When We called his a landlord, we
meant it. He has to argue with Con-
gress for money to build enough houses
and proper houses for his animals. He
has to see that they are we'll fed. not
too much, not too little The food bills
amount to between $26.4OO and s32.-
500 per year. The bears alone have
to have about 800 pounds of bear
bread per day. It's good, too, half
bran, half white -four, crusty, salty
and tough. One man bakes it all.
DR.. Mann has to know animals and
oil about them. He has to see that
his force knows how to handle ami
mails. He has to answer sensible and
silly questions about the beasts all
day long. He has to take care of
thousands of visitors-ordinary garden
variety ones and celebrities. He has
to be calm and collected efficient and
polite, enthusiastic and when the occa-
sion demands it, argumentative, impa-
tient and determined.
HE HAS to journey over to George
town to the old Customs House
to make arrangements for receiving
new animals from the four corners
OF the world. He has to know jungles
and the United States Government
equally well. He has to know all his
keepers and know where to tell them
to go on their busmen holidays-they
usually come back from vacations
laden down with new residents for the
Zoo. He has to be ready to receive a
hawk in paper pag or a great Ko-
modo dragon from the Dutch East
Indies.
He has to be diplomat and hard
bargainer and press agent. He must
be equipped with a great store of
anecdotes and ZOO stories and horse
trading sense that enables him to send
three tree lizards to the Philadelphia
Zoo and get in return that rare some
thing or other he has yearned for for
months.
He has to know that Winter is the
hardest season for most of the animals,
but that others must be watched in
Washington Summers. He has to see
that the two night watchmen-the only
humans in that very much inhabited
park at night, are on the job, whether
the animals are quietly sleeping or
roaring their heads off and that the
temperatures in the houses are correct.
He has to realize that humans make
more noise than the animals and to