Bonzo's War by Clare Campbell Page B

that same Saturday.
    They were the lucky ones. In the Cotswolds, Dibs and Smout were already settling in nicely. There were plenty of domestic pets heading for a different destination.

    It was a busy time too at London Zoo for all the wrong reasons. The Day Log for 1 September has ‘Germany invades Poland’ written in red ink. ‘Animals unwell: Ruffed Lemur, Patas Monkey, Raccoon, Asiatic White Crane, Wolf, Dingo, 2 Elephants and Sun Bear, Eland, Camel, Llama, Reindeer.’
    As the Zoo’s director, Julian Huxley, wrote in his memoirs: ‘When the news came over the radio the first thing I did was see that the poisonous snakes were killed, sad though it was for some snakes were very rare as well as beautiful. I closed the aquarium and had its tanks emptied and arranged that the elephants who might run amok if frightened be moved to Whipsnade.’
    The Zoo’s own ledger of ‘occurrences’ (written up each evening, an evocative record of births, deaths and transfers of its ever-changing population) for 1 September tells the sad tale of what happened. There were 593 visitors, of whom 68 paid 6
d
. extra to visit the aquarium. They were unaware of the slaughter in the reptile house – where 35 snakes were KBO’d (Killed by Order) – kraits, cobras, vipers, two puff adders, sundry rattlesnakes and five Gila monsters – all ‘beheaded’, according to one source.
    That same day the pandas were crated up and began the ponderous journey by road to Whipsnade – withsundry chimps and Franz the orangutan. The next day Babar, the Asiatic elephant, would make the same journey north. The Occurrences Book also noted the arrival of a moholi galago (bushbaby), ‘found in the neighbourhood and handed to the superintendent’.
    It was reported on the 2nd: ‘The poisonous snakes at the Zoological Gardens have been destroyed. The non-poisonous snakes were tended as usual but all will be destroyed at the outbreak of war.
    â€˜George the centenarian Alligator will be saved, along with the Chinese Alligator, the Komodo Dragon and the two largest pythons. The black widow spiders and the bird-eating spiders in the Insect House along with the scorpions have also been destroyed. Ming the young Giant Panda left for Whipsnade yesterday afternoon. Other animals will leave at the weekend.’
    On Sunday the 3rd at 11.15 a.m., Neville Chamberlain announced on the BBC that Britain was at war with Germany. One London woman would later claim her dog got out of its basket and ‘stood to attention at the historic moment’.
    That same day Winston Churchill was remade First Lord the Admiralty, political head of the Royal Navy. In the venerable building at the Trafalgar Square end of the Mall, a nameless battleship-grey cat prowled the basement. He would soon make Mr Churchill’s acquaintance. Their relationship was to be full of incident.
    The Zoo’s Occurrences Book was written up: ‘Gardens closed at 11.00am on declaration of war against Germany. Remaining closed until further notice.’ That same day the non-poisonous snakes, pythons and anacondas – huge creatures – went the way of their venomous brethren as the sirens howled. The aquariums were closed (‘danger of flying glass’) with the fish released or destroyed. Some reportedly went to West End restaurants.
    Fear of interrupted food supplies seems to have determined who was next on the Regent’s Park death list. The manatee in the tropical hall of the aquarium got it, as did six Indian fruit bats, seven Nile crocodiles, a Reeve’s muntjac and two American alligators (‘destroyed owing to war conditions’). Two lion cubs were put down.
    Meanwhile over at the Kursaal Zoo at the Southend funfair, Mr Frank Bostock, the attraction’s owner, complained that the animals, including seven lions, bears, wolves and a tiger worth £1,000 were now, ‘practically valueless and a