THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2389, 14 December 1899, Page 54

THE NATURALIST.

.How Panthers Catch Bfonkeys.

To moat sportsmen who shoot big game in India it is well known that panthers occasionally catch and eat monkeys. During my wanderings, extending over a period of 18 years, iv the jungles of the Deccan, I at various times came upon the Temains of a monkey which had evidently been caught and partly eaten by a panther. I never found the remains of aaiy but Hunuooman monkeys, or "lungoors," because these happened to be the only monkeys in the jungles referred to ; but I have no doubt that panthers prey also on all the other kinds of monkeys in India. The remains were usually left hanging in the fork of a tree, but occasionally on the ground. I often wondered hoy/ the capture of such a very knowing and- agile creature was effected, for the lungoor is always very careful to see that the coast is clear of his enemies before he descends to the ground, and in a tree, his natural abode, he is practically quite safe ,from any other animal that might try to catch him by climbing after him. The panther can climb a tree ac nimbly as a cat. but a lungoor can give any cat points and beat him at this game. Lungoors, however, dread panthers to an extraordinary degrse, and completely lose their heads if one happens to come upon them in a solitary tree, as ho occasionally does ; and it is of this that the panther takers advantage in most of the instances, I believe, in which he catches one or more monkeys. In a tree among others the monkeys would be safe enough, for they would jump from one tree to another, and so easily escape. Some years ago, on my way back to camp rather late in the evening from a day's sambur shooting, there being at the time a ; fairly bright moon, I noticed as I approached a large, solitary tree that it was full of monkeys, and that the latter were evidently in a considerable slate of alarm, for they were jumping wildly about among the branches (the tree had very little foliage, so that I could see" the monkeys pretty clearly), and grunting and screeching in a manner usual to them when they js2o a panther or tiger. I asked my pliikari what the row was about, and he replied that very piobably. a ppnther was in or near the tree trying to catch a monkey. We approached, the tree very cautiously, and when about 50 yards from it, my shikari whispered that he could see a pnnther, and pointed it out to me. The beast was standing on his .hind legs in the fork of the tree about 6fl from_ the. ground, with his forelegs vesting on a thick branch, and he was looking up at the monkeys and emitting a low, purring growl. Owing to the rather bad light for shooting, I could not bring my rifle to bear properly on the panther at the distance I then was from him, so I tried to get nearer ;' but ho saw me when I was still about 40 yards away (too far to shoot with any accuracy in that uncertain light), and jumped out of the tree and bolted through the low scrub which covered the ground thereabouts. The monkeys wore evidently much relieved at the panther's departure, and soon quieted down to their night's rest. On my asking my shikari, who was a Goird (an aborigine), and had lived all his. life in the jungles, how the panther intended to catch one of the monkeye, he said that the beast would have stood growling where we first saw him until the monkeys had completely lost their wits from terror, and jumped to the ground to escape. The panther would then have followed them, and very coon have caught one, as on the ground he could easily do co.

Some fer^ years after the occurrence pbove narrated I was told by a friend of mine of a scene he had witnessed in connection with the capjture of monkeys by pantherc.- He had gone out early one morning during the hot weather (the "hot weather" in the Deccan lasts from March to June) to try to discover where a rather cunning tiger that he was after used to lie up in the daytime, in order to beat him out and bag him. He ppsted himself at the top and to one side of a very deep and large ravine in which he knew, from certain signs he bad seen there a. day or two previously, that the tiger occasionally lay up, and he hoped to see the tiger returning to his lair in tho early morning after his night's wanderings. From his position my friend W. could see any large animal that might be moving about in the ravine, as most of the trees and bushes in the latter wore then bare of leaves. At the top of the opposite side of the ravine was a large solitary tree, almost bare of leaves, in which W. saw a lot of monkeys, which had evidently passed the previous night there. The tree was about threequarters of a mile from W., measuied as the crow flies, but about two to three miles round by the head of the ravine.

W. was disappointed as far as the tiger was concerned, for the beatt did not come to the rnvino that morning; but soon after he had abandoned all hope of seeing the tiger he noticed three panthers walking together up the bed of the ravine with the apparent object of lying up in it for the day. The monkey? in the trea also saw the. panthers, much to their sorrow, as it subsequently turned out, and began "swearing" vehemently at them, although the panthers were then quite half a mile away, and had apparently not been aware of the pre?ence of the monkc.vp. W. saw the panthers look up at the monkeys and then go up the side of the ravine towards them at a fast walk or trot. When the panthers got near the tree they disappeared from W.s sight in the low scrub growing there, but presently he saw one panther climb a short way up tho tree and bland up in it on his hind legs, leaning at the same time againft a thick branch. The monkeys had evinced considerable alarm as soon as they saw the panthers coming towards them, but bad not the sense (having lost their wits from fright) to leave the tree and escape while there was still time, to do so, ab they might eabily have done. When the panther get into the tree the monkeys were frantic with terror, as evidenced by their wild loaps from branch to branch, and by their .grunts and shrieks^ and

a fow minutes later they all jumped to the ground from branches farthest away from the panther. The other two panthers were most probably lying hidden in the adjacent bushes, so as not to hinder the monkeys from leaving' the tree. The panther in the tree jumped down as_ soon as" he saw the monkeys do so, and joined fhe other two in their monkey hunt. W. watched the whole performance with great interest, and when he saw the monkeys' and panther jump out of the tree it struck him that he might be able to get round to the tree in time to catch the panthers eating the monkeys they had probably caught, and to get a piot or two at them. He therefore hurried round by the head of the ravine as fast as possible, but was too late to see the panthers feeding. However, as he found the fresh remains of three or four monkeys near the tree, he concluded that the panthers, after such a hearty meal, would not go far before lying up for the day. He therefore followed them up by their "pugs," or footprints, and found that all three had gone into a dense patch of scrub. Having three or four natives (his shikari and coolies) with him, he got them to beat out the panthers towards a point previously taken up by himself. All three panthers came out, and he shot two of them. He then followed up' the third to another patch of scrub in which it had taken refuge, had it beaten out, and shot it. He thus bagged all three panthers, which was a great stroke of luck. At the same time it must be said that W. was an old and experienced hunter of big game, and that what' he did so well a less experienced man might have utterly failed in.

That panthers occasionally catch monkeys in other ways than by previously Bearing 1 them out of trees I quite believe,- but lam dispoEed to think that the latter is the plan they usually adopt, as it has the element of simplicity and certainty in cases where monkeys are so foolish as to roost in eolitary trees. — "Shikari," in the Field.