The mountain people of the primitive little island of Celebes, in The Netherlands East Indies, are sturdy, dark and rather lazy. Not so long ago, however, some of them bestirred themselves enough to go out and capture a pair of anoas, dwarf buffalo. They were beautiful anoas, about the color of Jersey cows. The male 85 lb., the female 75 Ib. The smallest of wild cattle, they belong to one of a number of rare species peculiar to Celebes and three small islands nearby.* Dutch officials were overjoyed when this latest captured pair was brought in. Forthwith the anoas were shipped off to The Netherlands Government zoo at Surbaya, Java, which generously gave them away.
The Surbaya zoo has long had with the San Diego, Calif, zoo friendly give-&-take relations similar to those which the Antwerp zoo has with the New York Zoological Park (TIME, Aug. 16). They trade rare specimens. The anoas certainly were rare; only four have ever been in the U. S. So the Surbaya zoo promptly put their anoas, accompanied by an old keeper named Topas Tenney, on board the Dutch liner Manoeran and packed them off to the U. S. The anoas traveled well. Every day they had their regular diet of hay and grain, same as any other cow. Last week they arrived in San Diego where delighted Zoo Hospital Chief L. F. Conti took them in charge, put them in 30-day quarantine. "They are behaving wonderfully," he chuckled, "gentle as kittens."
*Others: Babirusa or pig-deer; Cynopithecus nigrescens, the black, crested baboon.