Animals With Human Ways.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXII, Issue XIV, 2 April 1904, Page 60

Animals With Human Ways.

An old circus proprietor thus discoursed concerning the human traits shown by wild animals. Nearly all animals (he said) are vain, and all are of a jealous disposition. Even the test tempered creatures are annoyed at the attention paid to other animals. I have known elephants to grow quite sulky as the result of watching people displaying an interest in other creatures to the neglect of the great animals in the elephant house. Tigers are very fond of being taken in parade through the streets, and get quite impatient when preparations are being made for this purpose. When the procession starts they show every sign of pleasure, for they love the crowds, the music, and the excitement. A noticeable trait about wild animals is their love of children. They seem instinctively to recognise the hopelessness and innocence of childhood, and it is a very rare thing to hear of them attacking young people. The story of the savage elephant which was quieted when the keeper’s wife whom it was about to attack threw her baby in front of it, is a ease in point. Elephants, in fact, by reason of their intelligence, show affection, grief, remorse, and other emotions in a marked degree. A female elephant which had been bad-

ly treated by her keeper, at dusk one evening attacked another keeper, mistaking him for the offender. Fortunately she discovered het mistake, and turning the unconscious man over with her trunk, she tried her beet to revive him. When at last he came to himself, she was overwhelmed with delight, which she showed by every means in her power. But she had not forgotten her grudge against the other attendant, for within a few days she caught him unawares and nearly killed him. Another elephant died of a broken heart. She was the doting mother of a baby elephant, on which she lavished all her care and affection. One day the little elephant was removed to another part of the menagerie, and the mother, taking it for granted that the separation was permanent, became greatly depressed. Hearing her young one call to her from a distance, the old elephant trumpted loudly in response and then fell dead.