Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-11-07
Feeding Animals Towns Best Show,
But Stand Back, or Get Spottered
By Richard Rodgers

the Zoo. are at their finest In
the dining scenes. From the
elephants down to the humming
birds, their performances are
superb.
The Lion House act is prob
ably the live1iest., especially on
Mondays. Carnivores go with
out food on Sunday. BY Mon
day the curtain overture ct 1880
pm. is pandemoniunn as the
big cats yipe, yelp, howl. growl
and roar when walters begin
wheeling In the horsemeat.
Meat: 5 Tons . Month.
Zoo Supt. William Nd. Mann's
menu includes approximately
10, 900 pounds Of horsemeat a
month. Lions get from 10 to Is
pounds q day. Leopards eat 5
to z pounds at a sitting. The
babies and ailing animals have
theirs served chopped up; the
others get hunks to fit their
capacity.
Bears snack all day long on
peanuts contributed by visitors.
Regular chow call is at 8 pm.
and features bear bread"
Baked in daily patches. bear
bread comes in fiat slabs about
the size Of a small bungalows
front stoop. It is half bran,
half white flour, contains yeast,
is supercharged with vitamins
and has the consistency of q
dornick. The bears can have it.
LudicrOus Is. the Word.
The polar bear gets meat, and
most of the others get fish.
Some sit up and beg. Washing
ton offers few sights as ludicrous
as q big bear Numbered down,
Tapping q paw the size Of a
sofa pillow. begging for a fish.
Bears also get vegetables and
fruits, the same as hundreds OF
other Zoo inmates. The ami
NAL park buys more than 5 tons
q month Of sweet and white
potatoes, beets, carrots, apples,
bananas. oranges and the like.
Some Zoo table manners are
regrettable.
But some Of the biggest ami
mails are the daintiest. Each
elephant, for example, puts down
about 70 pounds q day Of hay.
grain and bread. But their
trunkwork is as delicate as the
knife and fork technique Of q
girl having her first lunch with
her flance's mother.
Gunda, the Zoos 19-year-
old great Indian rhino, is an
other dainty diner. Gunda is
Indian for Big Boy, and he
Is plenty gunda, but so well
behaved he will eat bread from
ones hand. This does not apply
to your hand. Zoo etiquette re-
quires you to stay more than an
arms length from the rhino.
Hippos Can't Help It.
The hippos cannot be classed
among the polite types. But
then. they're no doubt fastidious,
by hippopotamus standards.
Poor guys! AS soon as they
open their big yaps they can't
see over their own noses, so they
have to open even wider to make
sure they'll get what they're
munching ct; they end up re-
sembling an opened suitcase full
Of gristle. Makes it easier for
you to cast peanuts into them.
The parks three ostriches
perk up their grain and vege-
table diet with gravel; not ca
nary grit, either. but respectable
sized stones. Emus also eat grav-
Ell. This sort Of grub Is strictly
for the birds.
Feeding time at the sea lion
pool Is q gay party. The sleek,
charming mammals 90 into fitS
Of appreciation. They romp from
end to end Of the pool between
gulps, cavorting happily.
One Is blind. but keepers fling
fish his way and his nose leads
him to 1t In O hurry. The other
comics rear up on their fiappers,
barking for o handout, then
fling themselves away at high
speed.
Their feeding time is 3:15 pm.
daily. Half -an-hour or 80 ahead
Of time they start racing around
the pool, working up an appetite.
Pipe This Food List.
DR.. Mann's monthly grocery
list includes more than a ton
Of flsh, 2 tons Of bread. Is tons
Of hay, timothy and light clover;
3 tons Of straw. 7 tons Of
crushed oats, is barrels Of -four,
400 pounds Of sunhower seed
and 200 pounds each Of millet
and canary seed.
In addition, the Zoo uses
varied quantities Of fresh and
evaporated milk, eggs, rice,
shrimp, frozen foods, sugar and
assorted bird and animal mix
lures.
Emulsions. vitamin pills and
powders and energy sirupS are
employed on some animals. A
few have diets as troublesome
as an overweight glutton's..
Worms. beetles. chickens-as
many as 1000 live baby chicks q
month-mice. frogs and other
cackling. creeping and crawling
creatures finish up as food for
luckier fauna.
Food condemned as UNIT for
humans sometimes is sent to
the Zoo. Once the Zoo received
. vast quantity OF tomatoes.
Finally an individualistic mon
key Wearied Of this day-in-day-
out thing Of tomatoes and began
dinging them at his keepers.
His aim was admirable and
his cOunterattack sllccessflll