JUNGLE ANIMALS

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21510, 27 June 1935, Page 4 (Supplement)

JUNGLE ANIMALS

A request has been made for an account of some of the jungle animals and their ways of life. In New Zealand there are not very many people who have seen jungle animals in their native haunts; for not many New Zealanders are in the habit of going on big game hunting expeditions in Africa or northern India. When any such | unusual New Zealander comes home, however, he has long stories to tell of the dangerous positions he found himself in and of ihcstrange adventures he had on his travels. But we do not often hear much of the ways of the kings and queens of the jungle in the wilds or, for that matter, of their ways in captivity. Men who tell tales of jungle animals are much more interested in the methods of trapping and hunting the beasts than

in observing their habits and characteristics. The result is that we must go to books and to accounts in overseas newspapers, for our information about the apes, the members of the large cat family, and other jungle animals. The keepers of the London and Whipsnade Zoos have made very careful observations of the habits of various animals in captivity, and the director of the Zoological Society's aquarium, London, has made some most interesting comments on the changes that have taken place in the habits and chara* -ristics of such animals in the wads during hundreds of centuries. Two of the most interesting of such animals to study are the lion and the tiger. Both are members of the cat family. The young of the lion are called cubs, the young of the tiger, kittens. From all the stories I have heard, and the accounts I have read, I should imagine that the American poet, Walt Whitman, was not thinking of lions and tigers when he wrote: I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained. The lions and tigers I have seen la menageries have been very far

SOME QUAINT CHARACTERISTICS

that this spelling gave a better idea of the burning bright eyes of the great beast. In England now there are tigers kept in great dens, deep dug in the Whipsnade rock and earth. Two years ago three tiger kittens were born in these deep dens and were roc-red there. Before that time no tigers had been successfully raised from babyhood in an English zoo. Often there have been lion cubs, which have grown and flourished: but it seems that tigers are particularly sensitive about their young. They must not be disturbed or they will leave their kittens Or even kill them. When a baby tiger is born it is exactly like its parents in colouring; the oa?y differences are in its shape—it has very large cars and feet for its size, and its tail is much shorter in proportion than it is when the tiger is fully grown. With lion cubs all ;his is changed. The baby lion is ' born spotted; some cubs are so closely covered with spots that thev look like young Jeopards. But when the lion is grown up it is an even colour . over > a tawny, fawn-brown shads. It has been supposed that in the old, old days, hundreds of! centuries ago, the lion hunted deep

from placid; and if our domestic cat looks placid as she sleeps by the fire, and the wild tiger placid 33 she sleeps in the sun, they are very wide awake and fierce at the least rustle of sound that might possibly be made by a mouse or by the larger prey of the tiger. The lion, the tiger, the leopard, are all the same; very much alert arid keenly awake. When we think of a tiger we do not think of a calm, placid rr.imal—such as an elderly milk cow—we think of the kind of animal William Blake wrote of nearly 150 years ago: Tyger, Tyger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame the fearful symmetry' Blake spelt the word "tyger" because he lived a long t me ago and perhaps because it seemed to him

in the jungle as the tiger docs today. He; needed to have mottled markings, spots or stripes, so that he would not be noticeable run on £ the sun-dappled undergrowth. But then his quarry fled to the open plains with the tall, sjm-brov/ncd grasses for safety. Here came the lion in pursuit, and gradually, through the ages, his disguise or camouflage changed to match the dull brown grass of the plains. But his old colouring still may be seen in his cub. This interesting thecry has beer, applied to other animals than lions. Lion cubs arc friendly littles chaps when they are very young; in the London Zoo once a mother lion decided that she could not bo bothered looking after her children. So the keeper brought in a sheep Collio to take chavfio. 'j. 'v.. mother dog brought up the cubs and gave much delight to visitors. Sometimes when lion cubs are left motherless they are brought up on the bottle and domestic kittens or even rabbits are allowed to play with them. The little tiger kittens with their big roundish ears and their floppy feet are more difficult to make friends with than are young lions. Like all members of the cat family they receive their first lessons in hunting from their mother. She gives them their lessons in a peculiar but very simple way. She gently swishes her tail from side to sid3. and the kittens play catch and grab with it. This happens from the time when they are very young indeed, and it does not take them many weeks to learn how to catch that tail with the speed of lightning. Next time you see a cat with her kittens, watch her tail swishing gently to and fro. She is teaching the young oaes their first hunting lesson' —J,