THE marsupials provide a curious and valuable educa-
tional exhibit for the zoological garden.

It would almost seem that there exists in nature special
niches for various types of animals--the mole, the bear,
the squirrel, the cat. Throughout most of the world the
placental animals developed into types to fill these
niches, but where they were not present, in Australia
and the neighboring islands, the isolated marsupials
developed and produced approximately the same results.
So, among the marsupials we have animals strikingly
like the sloths, wolves, cats, moles, and flying squirrels.
They develop similar physical forms and exhibit similar
behavior, though actually the relationships between the
slothlike native "bear" of Australia, the koala, and the
South American sloths, and between the thylacine, or
Tasmanian wolf, and our prairie wolf are far more distant
than that between the latter and the elephant.

Marsupials are in general inferior in intelligence to
similar forms among the placentates. Most of them are
timid, harmless animals, usually nocturnal, and on the
whole not well fitted for captivity. Exceptions include
various types of kangaroos, the dasyure, or native cat,
wombats, Tasmanian devils, and phalangers, all of which
have been kept successfully at our Zoo. The latter have
bred several times.

The Tasmanian devils which we have had here have not
lived up to their reputation. One, which we had for five
years, became quite tame, and would come to the front

-217-