WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18786, 21 May 1923, Page 10

WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS

That animals are as keenly interested in us and our habit is a subject w e are sometimes inclined to forget. Indeed, careful observation is often a matter of life or death to them. The naturalists, absorbed in his nork, forgets that he, too. is an object under observation, and that his observer is Let-er equipped for the job than he is himself. We picture the creatures of the wild fleeing panic-stricken at the least suspicion of a human presence, whereas many of them will go forth to seek man, and spend many hours stealthily watching him. In his refreshing little book, “Watched by Wild Animals,” Ernest A. Mills refers to the deep interests which many of the more wide awake animate take in mar. and his doings. While lie himself was engagxl in watching two black bears playing in a wood, a flock of mountain sheep and a wild rat were all equally intent upon watching him. Goats take a deep interest in man and his ways. "With their long beards and shaggy knickerbockers, they look like grave old savants, as they subject th© movements of the mountaineer to the minuest scrutiny.

Sheep also possess the scientific spirit, and often display great courage in pursuing their investigations. Once, when opening the dbor of his cabin, the author was astonished to find him self confronted by a bighorn ram. This woolly philosopher had evidently decided to ipquirc into the nestinghabits of the strange two-legged crca ture that occasionally invaded its mountain domain, and forgetting personal safety in the interests of science,., had tracked him to his lair. 'J he natuialist, needless to say, was only too willing to be observed, and stiil more pleased when his august visitor condescended to lick salt from his hand, and permit hiniseif io be photographed.

A black bear cub, belonging to a settler in Colorado, used to display a keen interest in all visitors who came to call on his master, peeping out at them from behind a convenient treetrunk and sliding round it for protection. The puma or mountain lion will stalk travellers for hours, sometimes approaching within a few feet without being seen. This it does purely out of curiosity, for it rarely attacks human beings. The pity is that the result cf i all these observations will never le l known. It would, indeed, be most instructive to see ourselves as these others see üb.