Animals: Book From The Bronx

The New York Zoological Park shelters within its comfortable old Bronx plant the finest collections of animals in the world. Curator of Mammals & Reptiles and general head man at the zoo is Dr. Raymond Lee Ditmars. Not the least of many good things to be said about him is that he has written eight books about his work and has seldom foisted on his public an uninteresting word. Dr. Ditmars’ friend, William Bridges, is the zoo’s gift to Manhattan newspapers. Mr. Bridges is the zoo’s Curator of Publications, and it is a dull day when he and the zoo cannot oblige with a good animal interest story. Together Dr. Ditmars and Mr. Bridges wrote, and published last week, a book called Wild Animal World, designed to let the public know how zoos are run.

Wild Animal World starts out with two chapters entitled: “First Catch Your Animal,” and “—And Feed Him Well,” by Dr. Ditmars and Mr. Bridges respectively. Most zoo animals nowadays are caught by and bought from professional collectors who make a business of knowing just what each zoo needs and how much it can pay. Stocking a zoo is largely a matter of purchasing good show specimens. Occasionally, however, the Bronx zoo will commission a man to go on a trip to get an especially rare animal. Frank Buck was sent for an Indian rhino, Robert L. Garner was sent for a gorilla.

New York’s 2,500 animals have one man whose unique job it is to cook and prepare their food. Among the things the animals will eat during one year are: 1,600 frogs, 50 pounds of dried flies, 220 pounds of ant eggs, 1,300 chameleons, besides such usual food as carrots, beef, bananas, apples, grain. Daintiest feeder is the pigmy marmoset, which, for meat, eats only the smallest young lizards.

With the third chapter—”Doctoring Under Difficulties”—Wild Animal World goes into pure-anecdotage. There are fascinating tales of the infirmary: how cataracts were taken from the eyes of a rhinoceros; how a carrying case had to be invented for porcupines; how leather boots had to be made for a young elephant with weak ankles. And from the fund of experience laid up during 38 years at the zoo, Dr. Ditmars recalls the time a lion named Simba missed his birthday party because day before he had painted himself pea green by rolling around in his freshly painted cell. Once there was a seal (not from the zoo) loose on nearby Pelham Parkway, and they went out and captured him to add to the collection. And once a shipment of gopher snakes arrived at the zoo frozen like walking sticks, and had to be thawed out before they went on exhibition.

Most intriguing piece of description is Mr. Bridges’ chapter on “Midnight in the Zoo.” He went out one dark night and found that lions and tigers prowl about, that monkeys snore just like humans, that snakes sleep soundly with their eyes wide open.

Most interesting controversy in Wild Animal World: which animal is most dangerous? Dr. Ditmars is inclined to think some kinds of snakes are most dangerous, but he says it is a matter of familiarity and skill. A herpetologist, for instance, need have little fear of snakes, but if he is not careful a tiger or a gorilla might get him.

Ugliest animal in The Bronx, according to Messrs. Ditmars & Bridges, is Clarence, the wart hog, whose keeper stoutly defends him as “the nicest animal in the zoo.” Rarest animal is the new okapi (TIME, Aug. 10). Now that Dr. Ditmars has it, what he wants most is an Australian earth worm twelve feet long.