How Do You Zoo? (1948, sound)

[Music] how do you Zoo ladies and gentlemen how do you zoo that sounds like a play on words doesn't it but we really mean it how New Year Zoo most of us visit our zoo on Saturdays and Sundays and holidays when Mom Pop and the kids can get out for a Gaya holiday together and most of us go for the animal shows such as those made famous by director George P verhill at the St Louis Zoo record crowds sometimes more than 50,000 attend this famous zoo over the weekend jam-pack the modern Amphitheater where the monkey shows go on they're off to a thrilling start the happy chimps take their daily caner on streamline ponies scale down to size here's an easy one if you know how to do it there is one more chimp and Pony and someone is bound to be left at the post till the next trip around looks easy but ask the trainer this took long hours of patient work uh-oh looks like a touch of rodeo will he be able to hang on shuck says the chimp that's nothing I haven't seen the horse yet that couldn't be tamed by my Spanish Fandango so it goes two chimps in a ball in a barrel of fun producing a show that is Led from coast to coast and justly world famous time out for refreshment and to wander around the grounds before going to the next show this time it's the elephants how's this for a hoola two tons of it they say an elephant never forgets but we wonder what Little Eva remembers training is the thing long hours of it before the show can go on but it's fun for the animals as well as the audience and a great tribute to the trainers Strike Up the Band if anyone gets off key give him a squirt and these are the boys who can do it and so to another show a veritable Storehouse of entertainment say wait a minute who's that calling from the sidelines hey says Rocky Raccoon why don't you come over and see us we've got a show here too and it's true the side pits and small cages of anyu provide many good shows that are not on the schedule brother is busily washing his dinner before he'll take even a bite nor will he let anyone wash it for him he must do it himself and boy does he make a mess of it bears are sometimes called the raccoons big brothers because many ways they do things alike these are the sunbears from far off Malaya bidding for our attention they one of the few tropical bears but they are at home in any kind of climate here at the zoo they lead a happy life and love to show off the tricks they have taught themselves Carlos knows one a very spectacular trip on the spare tire if he can only get those feet up that a boy Carlos the daring young bear on the flying trapes and he says he learned it without uhoh well maybe it wasn't worth it whoo is me AAS ala say the young Kodiak bears but for those fancy chimps and trained elephants and the natural antics of the coons and honey bears how can we ever get people to come see us oh unhappy day it is indeed a problem one that we may never be able to solve oh fiddle fatle says the head of the house don't be so downcast if only I hadn't eaten that extra carrot I'm sure I would think of something why should you worry about human beings anyway it's all rather boring if you take my advice you'll just put out the lights and go to sleep nothing like a little snooze but Bears on the whole are pretty good natural performers especially around dinner time notice the spacious pits in which they are housed there are no bars only a moat separates them from the onlookers in winter time they hibernate in cave likee cages inside the simulated rocks everything possible is done to make the animals comfortable this polar bear comes from the vast solitudes of the far north and is equally at home on land or on the Water The Souls of his feet are quite hairy enabling him to retain a firm footing on slippery surfaces polar bears love to dive which is unusual for such large animals and they are excellent fishermen they can even do tricks like this when given some help from the cameraman I think he deserves an extra fish don't you well it's a far cry from the icy North to the tropical waste of Africa but here at the zoo it's just a few steps down the path if you saw this fellow in Africa you would head for the nearest tree for this is the dreaded two-horned rhinoceros they're unintelligent bad tempered tough customers they want to they can swing their weight around remarkably fast while we're in Africa let's have a look at a member of the horse family which usually comes in for a lot of joking about the color of his stripes a more importance to the zebras is the fact that their stripes blend into their natural background making the animals difficult to see as they stalk through the African night in search of food well what's this coming up over the mountain none other than our old friend the greater kudu one of the 135 different kinds of antelope to be found in Africa obviously only the male could support such horns as these which sometimes go to 3 and 1/2 fet in length what a lot of fun he could have with a bunch of toy balloons no trip to Africa would be complete without a look at a giraffe that's about all you're going going to get because Ida is very shy aloof did you say well she ought to be for giraffes are the tallest animals in the world forgive the corn but it's true a few steps down the zoo path and you move from Africa to Australia we arrive just in time for lunch at the wallabies or kangaroos to be less specific very nice people the kangaroos we entered the bit quietly so as not to disturb them they sat quietly eating their lunch while we made these close-ups all the time we had the feeling that something was about to happen and our hunch is Right lunch over the original guided missile takes off and you're never quite sure where he's going to land notice the difference in size between the front and back legs and the use of the tail when he stops say do you realize how far you go when you take a few steps in the modern Zoo from India to the Arctic regions to Africa and Australia and back to North America that's quite a few thousand miles even for such long-legged birds as these These are the cranes the Pelicans the STS as these more spectacular Birds pass in review we realize how much has been written and photographed about their life story for the moment suffice it to say that they play an important part in any well-rounded Zoo here we come to a group which the zoo calls the South American pomus scene the pompus once the of an ancient sea has been turned by civilization into a great cattle and agricultural area but the Foothills and surrounding mountains are populated by wild animals and here a group of these animals live in Perfect Harmony the wild guano and the more domesticated llama and alpacas are members of the camel family Inky sees the camera and charges forward but this alpaca is only interested in the food box we feel not so with old rubber legs the Llama he comes down with all his dignity to make an investigation and PS for his picture well these peculiar animals look like they tried to be elephants and just couldn't they are tapers part of the South American PPA scene they're very shine and offensive going about at night in the Deep forests in the neighborhood of water nothing looks so much like a Lar as the members of the crocodile family until the alarm sounded as we leave the South American scene we drop in at the reptile house to see how these unattractive young fellas are doing essentially a water reptile they live as a ruled in sluggy streams and Powerful Strokes of their flatten tales for there are many interesting and humorous sites not only schedule shows which await you at every turning