News on Screen

Series

Series Name

Rhodesian Spotlight

Issue

Issue No.

74

Date Released

1958

Length of issue (in feet)

347

Stories in this Issue:

• 1. On the Lake
• 2. The Ndola Show
• 3. The Numismatist
• 4. Youngsters Get Museum Minded
• 5. The Borrowdale Cup
• 6. Animal Antics

Story

Story No. within this Issue

6 / 6

Summary

Rhodesian Spotlight synopsis: The Posselt homestead in the Siyoka Native area is a managerie of snakes, a baby elephant, a mongoose, and domesticated eland. Mr. Norman Carr of Kafus has two young lion cubs.
Rhodesian Spotlight Commentary - It’s milking time at the Posselt homestead up in the Siyoka Native Area. Mr. Posselt keeps about a hundred snakes which are used in making anti-snakebite-serum. He also has an elephant orphan and a banded mongoose. Jackie the mongoose is one of the family and as playful as a kitten - maybe even more playful than a kitten. Sha the elephant is quite a mischief maker. Found orphaned 4 months and covered in sores she is doing fine and really hits the bottle when Karen feeds her. One of Mr. Posselt’s pet projects is domesticating Eland. He catches them when they are 6 to 8 weeks old, and tames them in a few days. He believes that being naturally easy feeders and resistant to disease, Eland have a future in farming. Instead of diminishing in numbers as they are doing now, the graceful Eland should increase as a commercial proposition. Protect them against parasites, and they are perfectly happy to run with the herd. When Norman Carr takes a stroll in the Kafue area, a couple of 6 months old lion cubs reckon it’s just the job. A game guard had to shoot Maza in self defence, and a third cub was sent over to Chester Zoo in England. These two can never be let loose to roam in the Kafue National Park because there will be nobody to teach them to hunt. That of course doesn’t mean they don’t know how to eat. As to the problem of what to do with them when they grow up, well, Mr. Carr is adamant about not sending them to a zoo, he has decided to keep them even when they are fully grown, and the cubs are delighted with the arrangement.

Keywords

Animals

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases
British Film Institute Sources
bund   BUND No.108331 - used for synopsis

Credits:

Production Co.

Central African Film Unit

Camera

Geoffrey Mangin

Camera

J. Tiley

This series is held by:

Film Archive

Name

British Film Institute (BFI)

Email

For BFI National Archive enquiries:
nonfictioncurators@bfi.org.uk
For commercial/footage reuse enquiries:
footage.films@bfi.org.uk

Web

http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web

Phone

020 7255 1444

Fax

020 7580 7503

Address

21 Stephen Street
London W1T 1LN

Notes

The BFI National Archive also preserves the original nitrate film copies of British Movietone News, British Paramount News, Empire News Bulletin, Gaumont British News, Gaumont Graphic, Gaumont Sound News and Universal News (the World War II years are covered by the Imperial War Museum).

Series held

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