CURIOUS INSTINCTS OF THE PUMA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 770, 3 December 1886, Page 9

CURIOUS INSTINCTS OF THE PUMA.

The men all went out ono day beyond the frontier to form a cerco, as it is called, to hunt ostriches and other game. The hunters, num bering about thirty, spread themselves round in a vast ring, and advancing towards the centra drove the animals before them. During the excitement of the chase which followed, while they were all engaged in preventing the ostriches, deer, &c., from doubling back and escaping, it was not noticed that one of the hunters had disappeared ; his horse, however, returned to its home during the evening, and on the following morning a fresh hunt for the lost man was organised. He was eventually found lying on the ground with a broken leg, where he had been thrown at the beginning

of the hunt. He related that about an hour after it had'become dark a puma appeared and sat near him but did not seem to notice him. After a while it became restless, frequently going away and returning, and finally it kept away so long that he thought it had /eft him for good. About midnight he the deep roar of the jaguar and cave himself up for lost. By raising himself on his elbow he was able to see the outline of the beanf, crouching near him, but his face was turned from him and it appeared to be intently watching some object on which it was about to spring. Presently it crept out of sight, then he beard snarlings and growling* and the sharp yell of a puma, and he Ifnew that the two beasts were fighting. Brfine morning he saw the jaguar several 1 imes, but the puma renewad'the contest, with it again and again until morning appeared, after which he saw and heard no more of them. Extrao-dinary as this story sounds, it did not 6eem so to me when T heard it, for I had already' met with many anecdotes of a similar nature in various parts of the country, some of them vastly more interesting than the one I have just narrated; only I did not get them at first hand, and am consequently not able to vouch for nccuracy ; but in this cass it seemed to me that there was really no room fbr doubt. , All' that I had previously heard had compelled me to believe that the puma really does posses a unique instinct of iriend iness forman, the origin of which, li--iethat of many other well-known instincts of animals, must remain a mystery. Hie fact that the puma never makes an unprovoked attack on a human being or eats human flesh, and that it refuses, except in-some very rara cases, even to atfend itself, does not seem realiy less wonderful in an animal of its bold and saguinarv temper than that it should follow the traveller in the wilderness, or come near him .when he lies sleeping or disabled, and even occasionally defend him from its enemy the jaguar. We know that, certain sounds, colors, or smells, which are not particularly noticed by most animals, produce an extraordinary effect on some species ; and it is possible to believe,l think, that the human form or countenance, or the odour of the human body, may also have the effect on the puma of suspending its predatory instincts and inspiring it with a gentleness towards man, which we are only accustomed to see in our domesticated carnivores or in feral animals towards those of their own species. Wolves, when pressed with hunger, will sometimes devour a fellow wolf ; as a rule, however, rapacious animals will starve to death rather than prey on one of their own kind, nor is it a common thing for them to attack other species possessing instincts similar to their own. The puma, we have seen, violently attacks other large carnivores, not to feed on them, but merely to satisfy its animosity; and, while respecting man, it is, within the tropics, a great hunter and eater of monkeys, whieh of all animals most resemble men. We can only conclude with Humboldt that there is something mysterious in the hatreds and affections of animals.—Longman’s Magazine.