SECRETARY’S REPORT 155 
DEPOSITS 
The Zoo accepts for deposit only those animals that will make 
attractive additions to the collection, and even in such instances lack of 
proper housing often makes it necessary to refuse animals offered 
for temporary exhibition. 
The offer of the National Aquarium Society of Washington to set up 
and maintain an exhibition of tropical fishes in the aquarium section 
of the reptile house was a welcome one. Members of the society have 
contributed tanks, filters, aerators, and a collection of fishes. The fishes 
belong to individual members of the Aquarium Society and will be 
returned to them when a new exhibition of different species is installed. 
This rotating or changing display should be a very attractive one 
for visitors. 
For many years the National Zoological Park has exhibited a female 
Przewalski’s wild horse, a species extinct in the wild and represented 
only by a few individuals in zoos in various parts of the world. Al- 
though the animal was assumed to be beyond breeding age, she had 
had foals in the past. She was mated with a stallion obtained on de- 
posit from the Catskill Game Farm in New York, but without results, 
and on June 6 the mare died at the ripe old age of 33. 
BIRTHS AND HATCHINGS 
One of the signs that an animal is doing well in captivity is its 
ability to reproduce its kind, and, as the following list shows, the num- 
ber of mammals, birds, and reptiles born in the National Zoological 
Park during the year is gratifying. 
The outstanding birth of the year was that of a female wisent, which 
has been duly registered with the Wisent Society of Europe. These 
animals are now so scarce that careful records are kept of all that are 
born or die. Unfortunately the mother died 6 weeks after the baby 
was born; the young one, however, is thriving. 
Other “firsts” for this Zoo included Cape hunting dogs, a striped 
hyena, a galago, a squirrel monkey, and an owl monkey, all of which 
are noteworthy by any zoo’s standards. 
Because of their curious life history, the hatching of Surinam toads 
in captivity is always of interest. For the second year one of the Zoo’s 
females laid eggs; the male carefully embedded them in her back, and 
35 little toads eventually emerged. 
Zoo officials were gratified when the young pair of hippopotamuses 
purchased in 1956 and 1957 produced their first young one. These 
were bought as replacements for the old pair, Bongo and Pinky, which 
had been here since 1914 and 1939, respectively. The old pair are 
still here; Bongo sired seven young ones by his first mate, Mom, who 
came to the Zoo in 1911 and died in 1930. Several young ones were 
born to Pinky, but she raised none of them. The new female, Arusha, 
