Evening Star Newspaper, May 16, 1937, Page 92

THIS WEEK probably be the motto of a good many of them. They certainly try hard enough to amuse the visitors to the New York Zoological Park. Some of our animals, as a matter of fact, must be rated as very poor exhibition animals until @ crowd of yelling, laughing school children appear in front of their cages — and then their antics begin. They actually seem to get as much fun out of it as the chil- dren do. I have in mind particularly some of our bears. They will put on a show any time of the day, if they can get a big enough crowd around, because a crowd means they will be showered with peanuts, popcorn and frag- ments_of sandwiches. One of them has a neat trick of sitting with his feet propped up against the bars, making a tremendous lap. Every peanut that comes near him is sure to fall into this lap if it misses his mouth — and he knows There is no need of tossing peanuts at the giant anteater in the hope of seeing some antics. His mouth is just about big enough to admit a single peanut, but he hasn’t any front teeth and he would have a hard time chewing it. A handful of ants, now -— that would make the anteater turn figurative handsprings! ‘:% F animals had the ability to make up slo- s I gans, “Anything to get a laugh!” would .~ < - LIUGHT The slogan of the animals in the zoo seems to be, ‘“Anything to get a laugh” by DR. RAYMOND L. DiITMARS Curator of Mammals and Reptiles, New York Zoological Park Magazine Section Except at night, when he is most active, the best time to catch the anteater off guard is ir the morning when he wakes up. Then he wil stretch and — I suppose you would call it yawning, since it is about all he can do with his mouth — run his long, sticky tongue out for a full eighteen inches. Once he has exer- cised his tongue a few times, he is likely to lie¢ down again, throw his big, brushy tail over his head and go back to sleep. Some creatures, of course, simply cannot be induced to perform any tricks or antics “Jimmy,” the rare shoebill stork from Africa is one of the solemn birds. In fact, he is likely to be so dignified and perpetually solemn that his very gravity is humorous. I have ofter. wondered what it would take tomake ‘‘Jimmy’ lose his dignity. Although I have had a good many years] experience with members of the monkey family, I never enter the Primate House with- out seeing something new and getting a laugl — either from the gorilla’s quizzical expres- sion as she watches the human beings in fron of her cage, the faces she makes when sh wants to show her emotions, or the antics o the lively chimpanzees. Little “‘Buddy,” th Chimp, kept us laughing for months at th tricks he played —or tried to play —o Frieda, an orang. ABOVE —HERE'S THE ANTEATER’S DAILY DOZEN. HE BOASTS A SWEET TONGUE —FOR TINY RED ANTS HE IS NEVER A GAY BIRD: BUT ‘JIMMY,'' THE SHOEBILL STORK FROM AFRICA, IS AMUSING BE- CAUSE HE IS AL- WAYS SO SOLEMN. MAYBE HE KEEPS WORRYING ABOUT THE DECLINE IN THE BIRTHRATE! oy GOOD ENOUGH TO PASS A MOVIE TEST: MISCHIEF — AND, AT RIGHT, THOUGHY