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Show Elephants' Memories as Short as Their Tails, According to an Expert at Zoo Experts at the zoological park in Brookfield are busy disputing time-honored time-honored fables about animals. You can forget the following, advises a Chicago United Press correspondent in the Detroit Free Press: An elephant has a good memory. Monkeys like bananas. The humming bird has a small appetite. Beasts of the jungle are cruel. In fact name any of the popular beliefs about animals and Robert Bean, assistant director of the zoo, will give you a two to one bet that you're wrong. He and his assistants assist-ants based their conclusions on observations. ob-servations. The elephant, for example, has a memory no longer than his tail. Doctor Bean cited the case of Honey, Hon-ey, a baby elephant which was rescued res-cued from starvation in the wilds of Africa by Christoph Schulz. Schulz brought the animal to Chicago and for months nursed it along on a bottle. bot-tle. He was absent from town for eight months and when he returned Honey gave him the snub; didn't remember him at all. The female elephant is reputed to breed at the age of 40 to 50, but Doctor Doc-tor Bean said, in reality, she breeds at six to eight years. Monkeys like bananas? Doctor Bean poo-pooed the idea. "Give a monkey a bag of popcorn, if you want to make him happy." And humming birds? They have an appetite that rivals the greediest pig in the sty. Beast cruel? Not at alL A hungry tiger, Doctor Bean said, does away with its prey in short order, as if it had deep sympathy for the unfortunate unfor-tunate jungle pal it is necessary to devour for sustenance. A house cat Doctor Bean said, is more cruel in playing with a helpless mouse before be-fore eating it than the most feared jungle cat. The lay public has one inning, though, according to the experts of the zoo. A leopard really can't change its spots. |