Sick Python Fed With Special Rubber Hose
WHEN the throat muscles of a 22-1/2 -foot python in the St. Louis, Mo., zoo became paralyzed recently, it became necessary for the zoo officials to use force-feeding methods to keep the reptile alive. The feeding equipment developed for the job consists of a five-foot length of special rubber hose fitted with a removable plunger. Ground rabbit meat is fed into the hose and is forced into the snake’s stomach by means of the plunger.

This is kind of sad. It almost warrants it’s own unicorn chaser.

BULL WITH SINGLE HORN IS MODERN UNICORN
What might be called a modern unicorn has been produced by Dr. W. F. Dove, University of Maine biologist. From a day-old bull calf, Dr. Dove removed the two small knots of tissue which normally develop into horns. These horn buds he transplanted in the center of the bull’s forehead, thereby inducing the growth of a single massive horn. The bull, now nearly three years old, has developed much of the proud bearing ascribed to the mythical unicorn.

Wait. That’s a zoo? I thought it was the Alaskan wilderness!

MURALS MAKE BEAVERS FEEL AT HOME
Beavers in a den at the Belle Isle Zoo, in Detroit, Mich., now cavort amid scenes resembling their natural habitat. To minimize the artificial appearance of the surroundings, an artist reproduced a colorful forest panorama, complete with pine trees, scrub brush, streams, and lakes, upon the concrete walls of the open beaver pit. Visitors are attracted by the novelty of viewing the animals against a woodland background.

Rose Glasses on Chickens Reduce Fighting
There was murder going on in a New Jersey penitentiary yard. The prison chickens were killing each other. One after another, the young White Leghorns would fight among themselves to the death. Nothing was effective in preventing the quarrels until the warden tried putting rose-colored glasses on the birds. That stopped the fighting instantly. The Leghorns, the only fighters in the poultry lot, now are all equipped with aluminum-framed spectacles with center pieces extending in front of the bill.

This is insane. I had no idea that anyone raced pigeons, let alone thousands of people in races that often exceeded 1,000 miles! Apparently people still race them. Check out the American Racing Pigeon Union.

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Mile-a-Minute Pigeons Thrill Millions in Races Against Time
By Edwin Teale

STREAKING through the skies with the speed of crack express trains, feathered racing champions, trained by amateur pigeon fanciers, are shuttling across the map on amazing flights. In recent years, the sport of pigeon racing has spread rapidly. In the United States alone, upwards of 10,000 amateurs own lofts, and each year the American Racing Pigeon Union sends out half a million numbered aluminum bands that go on the legs of newly hatched “squeakers.” As this is written, all over the East and Middle West fanciers are grooming their prize birds for the Chattanooga National, the Kentucky Derby of the air. This annual event, held about the middle of June, sometimes attracts as many as 1,700 entries. Last year, a one-year-old male pigeon, which had never won a contest in its life, carried off the prize. It averaged almost fifty miles an hour for the 535 miles from Chattanooga, Term., to its home loft at Washington, D. C.
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Now that’s entertainment!

TEAM OF 30 ANIMALS HAUL HEAVY WHEAT LOAD

Driving single-handed a team of 20 horses and 10 mules, hitched to a wagon train loaded with more than 1,000 bushels of wheat, Ralph Morehouse, of Alberta, has established what is said to be a record in western Canada. The trip was made recently over a 22-mile stretch from his ranch near Buffalo Hills to a grain elevator at Vulcan, Alta., where, without unhitching any of the animals, the entire load was disposed of in 1 hour 17 minutes. Read the rest of this entry »

I would be more worried about someone stealing my cheetah than my car. Of course I’d be much more worried about my cheetah stealing some some curious child’s arm.

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CHILDREN’S PICTURE-STORY DEPARTMENT

A Modern Lilliput That Has No Lilliputians, Being an Uninhabited Miniature Village Constructed by the Children of a Denver Man near His Summer Home in the Rocky Mountains: The Church Has Spires Three Feet High. To the Right Is an Electrically Lighted Brick Block in the Village

South Pasadena, California, Is Proud of Possessing What Is Doubtless the Youngest Band in the World. Including the Bandmaster, Seen in the Foreground, Each of the 60 Members of the Band Is Seven Years Young or Younger. All Are First and Second-Grade Pupils of the Local Public Schools, Where They were Trained. Left: Close-Up of Three of the Musicians
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Wow, diving with a ferocious dolphin. That’s pretty daring!

Daring Diver Feeds Diving Dolphins

An underwater picnic at which a diver hand-feeds a school of porpoises while at the bottom of an outdoor tank, is a novel stunt performed daily at an aquarium in Marineland, Fla. Dressed in full underwater regalia, the diver enters the tank carrying a wire basket full of small fish. Descending to the bottom, he sits on the tank floor twelve feet below the surface and feeds the aquarium’s dolphins by hand. The unusual photograph above was snapped through a window in the side of the tank as one of the graceful creatures paused only long enough to snatch up a mouthful.

Trained Cockroach Smuggles Smokes
How a prisoner in solitary confinement received forbidden cigarettes was revealed by Amarillo, Tex., jail officials. Inmates tied a cigarette and match to the back of a trained cockroach, which smuggled them into the cell.

CIRCUS “HIPPO” IS HARNESSED AND TRAINED TO DRAW CART

After considerable coaching at the hands of an animal trainer, “Lotus,” a circus hippopotamus enjoying winter quarters in California, was taught to haul a two-wheeled cart. A V-shaped tongue attached to a broad band around the creature’s back made traces unnecessary. A bridle of strong leather with the reins attached to the jaws completed the harness, and aided in directing the “river horse” which seemed to enjoy its “stunt” as it walked to its pool and back. Hippopotamuses are said usually to show little intelligence, but they are capable of great speed when in flight from an enemy, or while rushing to an attack after being wounded.

Well, I guess we know now where that urban legend about alligators in the sewer started.

Plumbers Use Alligators To Open Clogged Pipes

Alligators kept as specimens at the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries aquarium in Washington, D.C, are being tried out as plumber’s assistants to open up clogged pipes. Placed in a length of pipe that is stopped up with silt and sediment, the reptile digs his way through, opening up a small hole which water later will widen by its pressure as it sweeps through.

Hen Changed to Rooster by Biologists

TURNING roosters into hens and vice versa is the newest miracle to be attempted by science. Working at the Biological Institute of the College of France a group of scientists are engaged in a series of amazing experiments on the hypophysis gland, a small gland situated at the base of the brain.

It is their belief that by transplanting this gland from the body of a rooster into the body of a hen a complete change of sex will be effected.

In early experiments conducted on various breeds of poultry French Biologists have succeeded in proving their contention.