Zoo Keeper Tugs Cobra Out of Tree by Tail, 
Gets Gooseflesh at Sight of a Rat 
Roy Jeiuier Tells of African 
Expedition With Dr. Blann After 
New Specimens for D. C. Cages 
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Without a qualm, Roy J. Jennier will pull an 
8-foot cobra by the tail in line of duty but the sight 
of a big rat or spider gives him the goose&eshy 
whim whams. •' TT^ * w g Wt* t Xn! ”W 
This weakness in his armor came out yesterday 
in the course of a cross-examining of the Zoo 
keeper on his experiences as an African game 
hunter. It was his second day back at work, after 
two months in Liberia as a member of Zoo Director 
William M. Mann’s animal expedition. 
Jennier thought the capture of the 8-foot black 
cobra, which now decorates a cage in the reptile 
house, by Ralph B. Norris, the only other Zoo keeper 
taken on the expedition. Dr, Mann and himself 
hardly worth discussing. 
"We first saw him slithering through the bush,” 
he said. “When he caught sight of us he turned 
tail. First shelter the snake spied was a hole in the 
ground, where a goodsized tree had been uprooted. 
"All but about 2 feet of him got inside the hole. 
While I pulled the cobra’s tail, Norris dug away so 
as to get to the rest of his body. Meantime, all our 
native boys were running in various directions.” 
The natives, Jennier explained, are a great help 
on a safari—until there is a snake to be caught 
Then they suddenly vanish. 
At times the Mann party had as many as 2,000 na¬ 
tive boys serving as “beaters,” surrounding an area 
where there was game and stirring a great com¬ 
motion to drive the beasts into the clearing, where 
the hunters waited with nets. ^ 
“The thing I’ll never forget,” said the 27-year-old 
Zoo keeper, who previously had never been south of 
Virginia Beach, “were those driver ants. Every¬ 
thing incredible and fantastic you’ve ever heard 
about those devils is true, and more besides. 
Post Staff Photo 
ROY JENNIER HOLDING LIZARD 
and tried to save the deer that was still alive* But 
it was useless. In an hour he was 
j&i; 
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Nor will he forget, he said, the strange;;situati.on 
in which housewives on the vast Firestone rubber 
plantation, which is equipped with a golf course .and 
electricity and all modern conveniences, have. to 
watch where they tread when hanging up clothes 
lest they step on a deadly viper or cobraV r >4' : \ :: -; 
R No traveler can return home without; ^tlyenirs, 
“One night we were eating supper in the xnenag- which accounts for the elaborate tribal headdress, 
erie on the Firestone plantation when a boy;4^ree'Jhrad-cai^^ spears and other 
yelling'drivers!’ We ran out to the deer pen) where trinkets ornamenting' the ,Jehnier residence at 202 
the boy was pointing excitedly, and found one r\rixf» AlivonHria 
n animal already dead and another literally covered 
; with the invaders. 
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, “Using kerosene, blow torches, brooms and any- 
thing w y e could lay hands on, we dispersed the ants 
i r - . •: . A - T , ; ii \i 4 ' ■' 
... ... *.■ .. y k.l o » J , 
Summers Drive, Alexandria. • i 
“I fee 1 like a regular globe :irotier already ” he 
said with a laugh, “though until I went to Africa the 
largest boat Fd ever been aboard w r as a moonlight 
e 4 i»»*« a r« 
excursion steamer.’ 
t S ’A • 4 iTtr* 
