ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



ITEMS OF INTEREST 

 Zoological Park 



Army and Navy Mascots. — Owing to a gov- 

 ernment ruling that no large animal mascots 

 may accompany our soldiers on army transports 

 during the voyage to France, the Park has be- 

 come a sanctuary for several army and navy 

 pets. One of these mascots is a particularly 

 interesting white-tailed deer of a variety that 

 never previously has been on exhibition at the 

 Park. This fine, young male specimen was 

 captured near the United States-Mexican boun- 

 dary, and was presented to the Society by the 

 1st Troop United States .Military Police, 

 through Sergeant Charles L. Bajart. Jr. This 

 troop is now quartered at Camp Upton, Long 

 Island. Other mascots that are on exhibition 

 include three black and cinnamon bear cubs. 

 Two black bears were presented by Sergeant 

 Skinner, of the Sunset Division, U. S. A., 

 through Mr. John Hays Hammond. President 

 of the Rocky Mountain Club. New York City. 

 Young bears appear to be favored mascots. 



Snake-Bite Scrum. — Since establishing a base 

 at the Park for the distribution of anti-venom- 

 ous serum, we have had a number of calls for 

 this valuable antidote for snake-bite, and so far 

 as we can learn, all the cases treated have re- 

 sulted in complete cures. The Society recently 

 sent a large number of tubes of serum to army 

 medical posts along the United States-Mexican 

 boundary. These tubes were produced specific- 

 ally in the Brazilian government laboratory at 

 Sao Paulo, by Dr. Vital Brazil, for the treat- 

 ment of rattlesnake bite. 



While comparatively few cases of bites of 

 wild poisonous snakes in the United States are 

 reported, accidents are rather frequent from the 

 careless handling of captive specimens. The 

 majority of these cases occur in traveling shows. 

 Our last assignment of serum went to the Har- 

 lem Hospital, in this City, where a young man 

 was suffering from a wound on the thumb, 

 produced by a large Texas rattlesnake. The in- 

 jection of the serum brought speedy improve- 

 ment, and the patient was soon discharged. 



Persistent Zero Weather. — The month of De- 

 cember. 1917, has broken all weather bureau 

 records of the past forty years for persistent 

 cold. Four cold waves — each of particularly 

 long duration — covered a period of fully two- 

 thirds of the month. Between these spells of 

 intense cold, severe snow storms prevailed, 

 greatly increasing the severity of existing win- 

 ter conditions. Temperatures below zero on the 

 29th. 30th and 31st were unprecedented in the 



history of the Park. On the night of the 30th. 

 our thermometers registered between 12 and 14 

 degrees below zero. Under those conditions 

 practically all the hydrants supplying drinking 

 troughs in the animal ranges were frozen. The 

 few hydrants that continued running, accumu- 

 lated immense and fantastic mounds of ice. and 

 the keepers assigned to outside work toiled 

 throughout the day chopping away the ice and 

 carrying water to the animals. 



Throughout the cold period, the animals con- 

 tinued in splendid condition, and the only cas- 

 ualtv among the mammals was a very young 

 fawn axis deer that wandered out of its stall 

 and died of exposure. We discovered several 

 guinea fowl that had sought shelter in nooks 

 along the buffalo shed, were frozen to death. 

 Despite the activity of the great flock of ducks 

 and geese in the Wild-Fowl Pond, this large 

 stretch of water closed to such a small area that 

 hundreds of birds were forced to take refuge in 

 an opening not more than twenty feet in diam- 

 eter. 



"Record of Events. — A motion picture series 

 has been prepared at the Park showing certain 

 activities here during the present strenuous year. 

 These pictures were exhibited at the Annual 

 Dinner of the Board of Managers given by Mr. 

 Geo. F. Baker on the evening of December 27, 

 and also formed part of the program at the 

 Annual Meeting of the Society at the Waldorf- 

 Astoria on Tuesday, January 8. The series of 

 events illustrated, included the ceremonies at- 

 tending the raising of the large national flag on 

 Baird Court early last April. This flag was the 

 gift of the officers of the Zoological Park Staff. 

 The event was attended by a mobilization of 

 the Boy Scouts to the number of over a thou- 

 sand. 



The war farming activities in the Park dur- 

 ing the year, and the planting of the elk range, 

 wild-horse range, ball fields and other areas 

 with corn, cabbage, carrots, mangles, sunflowers 

 and other needed products were shown. There 

 were several scenes illustrating the midsummer 

 utilization of the crops, the use of one of the 

 elephants in delivering hay. and the training of 

 the Park rifle company. There were interest- 

 ing views of the target range with squads of our 

 men practicing with the Springfield rifle, the 

 large and flourishing Red Cross working base 

 at the Lion House, and a number of the Park 

 animals. 



Our Service Flag. — A large service flag now 

 hangs in the Reptile House, and its field con- 

 tains nine stars. 



