by members of the Deer Family (deer, elk, moose and caribou). The
hollow-horned ruminants seem to be different. I believe that
toward their keepers the bison, buffaloes and wild cattle
entertain a certain measure of respect that in members of the Deer
Family often is totally absent. But there are exceptions; and a
very sad and notable case was the murder of Richard W. Rock, of
Henry's Lake, Idaho, in 1903.
Dick Rock was a stalwart ranchman in the prime of life, who
possessed a great fondness for big-game animals. He lived not far
from the western boundry of the Yellowstone Park. He liked to rope
elk and moose in winter, and haul them on sleds to his ranch; to
catch mountain goats or mule deer for exhibition; and to breed
buffaloes. His finest bull buffalo, named Indian, was one of his
favorites, and was broken _to ride!_ Scores of times Rock
rode him around the corral, barebacked and without bridle or
halter. Rock felt that he could confidently trust the animal, and
he never dreamed of guarding himself against a possible evil day.
But one day the blood lust seized the buffalo, and he decided to
assassinate his best friend. The next time Dick Rock entered the
corral, closing the gate and fastening it securely,--thus shutting
himself in,--the big bull attacked him so suddenly and fiercely
that there was not a moment for either escape or rescue. We can
easily estimate the suddenness of the attack by the fact that
alert and active Dick Rock had not time even to climb upon the
fence of the corral, whereby his life would have been saved. With
a mighty upward thrust, the treacherous bull drove one of his
horns deeply into his master's body, and impaled him so completely
and so securely that the man hung there and died there! As a
crowning horror, the bull was unable to dislodge his victim, and
the body of the ranchman was carried about the corral on the horns
of his assassin until the horrified wife went a mile and a half
and summoned a neighbor, who brought a rifle and executed the
murderer on the spot.
Such sudden onslaughts as this make it unsafe to trust implicitly,
and without recourse, to the good temper of any animal having
dangerous horns.
If bird-lovers knew the prevalence of the murder instinct among
the feathered folk, no doubt they would be greatly shocked. Many
an innocent-looking bird is really a natural villain without
opportunity to indulge in crime. It is in captivity that the
wickedness inherent in wild creatures comes to the surface and
becomes visible. In the open, the weak ones manage to avoid
danger, and to escape when threatened; but, with twenty birds in
one large cage, escape is not always possible. A "happy-family" of
a dozen or twenty different species often harbors a criminal in
its midst; and when the criminal cunningly waits until all
possibilities of rescue are eliminated, an assassination is the
result.
[Illustration with caption: RICHARD W. ROCK AND HIS
BUFFALO MURDERER This bison treacherously killed the man soon
after this picture was made]
[Illustration with caption: "BLACK BEAUTY" MURDERING "APACHE"]
Here is a partial list of the crimes in our bird collection during
one year:
A green jay killed a blue jay. A jay-thrush and several smaller
birds were killed by laughing thrushes,--which simply love to do
murder! A nightingale was killed by a catbird and two mocking-
birds. Two snake-birds killed a third one--all of them thoroughly
depraved villains. Three gulls murdered another; a brown pelican
was killed by trumpeter-swans; and a Canada goose was killed by a
gull. All these victims were birds in good health.
It is deplorable, but nevertheless true, that in large mixed
companies of birds, say where forty or fifty live together, it is
a common thing for a sick bird to be set upon and killed, unless
rescued by the keepers. In crimes of this class birds often murder
their own kind, but they are quite as ready to kill members of
other species. In 1902 a sick brant goose was killed by its mates;
and so were a red-tailed hawk, two saras cranes, two black
vultures, a road-runner, and a great horned owl. An aged and
sickly wood ibis was killed by a whooping crane; and a night heron
killed its mate.
Strange as it may seem, among reptiles there is far less of real
first-degree murder than among mammals and birds. Twenty
rattlesnakes may be crowded together in one cage, without a family
jar. Even among cobras, perhaps the most irritable and pugnacious
of all serpents, I think one snake never wantonly murders another,
although about once in twenty years one will try to swallow
another. The big pythons and anacondas never fight, nor try to
commit murder. And yet, a twenty-foot regal python with a bad
heart--like Nansen's polar bear--could easily constrict and kill
any available snake of smaller size.
At this moment I do not recall one instance of wanton murder among
serpents. It is well known that some snakes devour other snakes;
but that is not crime. The record of the crocodilians is not so
clear. It is a common thing for the large alligators in our
Reptile House to battle for supremacy and in these contests
several fatalities have occurred. Some of these occurrences are
not of the criminal sort; but when a twelve-foot alligator attacks
and kills a six-foot individual, entirely out of his class and far
too small to fight with him, it is murder. An alligator will seize
the leg of a rival and by violently whirling around on his axis,
like a revolving shaft, twist the leg completely off.
Among sea creatures, the clearly defined criminal instinct, as
exhibited aside from the never-ending struggle for existence and
the quest of food, is rarely observed, possibly because
opportunities are so few. The sanguinary exploits of the grampus,
or whale-killer, among whales small enough to be killed and eaten,
are the onslaughts of a marine glutton in quest of food.
Among the fishes there is one murderer whose evil reputation is
well deserved. The common swordfish of the Atlantic, forty miles
or so off Block Island or Montauk Point, is not only one of the
most fearless of all fishes, but it also is the most dangerous.
His fierce attacks upon the boats of men who have harpooned him
and seek to kill him are well known, and his unparalleled courage
fairly challenges our wonder and admiration. But, unfortunately,
the record of the swordfish is stained with crime. When the spirit
of murder prompts him to commit a crime in sheer wantonness, he
will attack a whale, stab the unfortunate monster again and again,
and pursue it until it is dead. This is prompted solely by
brutality and murder lust, for the swordfish feeds upon fish, and
never attempts to eat any portion of a whale. It can easily be
proved that wild animals in a normal state of nature are by no
means as much given to murder, either of their own kind or other
kinds, as are many races of men. The infrequency of animal
murders cannot be due wholly to the many possibilities for the
intended victim to escape, nor to difficulty in killing. In every
wild species murders are abundantly possible; but it is wholly
against the laws of nature for free wild beasts to kill one
another in wantonness. It is left to the savage races of men to
commit murders without cause, and to destroy one another by fire.
The family crimes and cruelties of people both civilized and
savage completely eclipse in blackness and in number the doings of
even the worst wild beasts. In wild animals and in men, crime is
an index to character. The finest species of animals and the
noblest races of men are alike distinguished by their abhorrence
of the abuse of the helpless and the shedding of innocent blood.
The lion, the elephant, the wild horse, the grizzly bear, the
orang-utan, the eagle and the whooping crane are singularly free
from the criminal instinct. On the other hand, even today Africa
contains tribes whose members are actually fond of practicing
cruelty and murder. In the Dark Continent there has lived many a
"king" beside whom a hungry lion or a grizzly bear is a noble
citizen.
XXV
FIGHTING WITH WILD ANIMALS
The study of the intelligence and temperaments of wild animals is
by no means a pursuit of academic interest only. Men now are
mixing up with dangerous wild beasts far more extensively than
ever before, and many times a life or death issue hangs upon the
man's understanding of the animal mind. I could cite a long and
gruesome list of trainers, keepers and park owners who have been
killed by the animals they did not correctly understand.
Not long ago, it was a park owner who was killed by a dangerous
deer. Next it was a bull elk who killed the keeper who undertook
to show that the animal was afraid of him. In Idaho we saw a
death-penalty mistake with a bull buffalo. Recently, in Spain, an
American ape trainer was killed by his big male chimpanzee.
Recently in Switzerland a snake-charmer was strangled and killed
on the stage by her python.
Men who keep or who handle dangerous animals owe it to themselves,
their heirs and their assigns to _know the animal mind and
temperament, and to keep on the safe side._
In view of the tragedies and near-tragedies that animal trainers
and keepers have been through during the past twenty years, I am
desirous of so vividly exhibiting the wild animal mind and temper
that at least a few of the mistakes of the past may be avoided in
the future. Fortunately I am able to state that thus far no one
ever has been killed by an animal in the Zoological Park; but
several of our men have been severely hurt. The writer hereof
carries two useless fingers on his best hand as a reminder of a
fracas with a savage bear. How Dangerous Animals Attack Men. The
following may be listed as the wild animals most dangerous to man:
1. In the open: Alaskan brown bears, the grizzly bears, lion,
tiger, elephant, leopard, wolf, African buffalo, Indian gaur and
buffalo, and gorilla.
All these species are dangerous to the man who meddles with them,
either to kill or to capture them. If they are not molested by
man, there is very little to fear from any of them save the man-
eating lions, and tigers, the northern wolf packs, Alaskan brown
bears and rogue elephants.
2. In captivity, or in process of capture: Under this head a
special list may be thus composed:
Male elk and deer in the rutting season; male elephants over
fifteen years of age; all bears over one year of age, and
especially "pet" bears; all gorillas, chimpanzees and orangs over
seven years of age (puberty); all adult male baboons, gibbons,
rhesus monkeys, callithrix or green monkeys, Japanese red-faced
monkeys and large macaques; many adult bison bulls and cows of
individually bad temper; also gaur, Old World buffalo, anoa bulls,
many individually bad African antelopes, gnus and hartebeests; all
lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards, wolves, hyenas, and all male
zebras and wild asses over four years of age.
How they attack. The _lion, tiger and bear_ launches at a
man's head or face a lightning-quick and powerful fore-paw blow
that in one stroke tears the skin and flesh in long gashes, and
knocks down the victim with stunning force. Before recovery is
possible the assailant rushes to the prostrate man and begins to
bite or to tear him. Instinctively the fallen man covers his face
with his arms, and with the lion, tiger and leopard the arms come
in for fearful punishment. It is the way of carnivorous beasts to
attack each other head to head and mouth to mouth, and this same
instinct leads these animals to focus their initial attacks upon
the heads and faces of their human quarry.
After a man-eating lion or tiger has reduced the human victim to a
state of non-resistance, the great beast seizes the man by a bite
embracing the chest, and with the feet dragging upon the ground
rushes off to a place of safety to devour him at leisure. Dr.
David Livingston was seized alive by a lion, and carried I forget
how many yards without a stop. His left humerus was broken in the
onset, but the lion abandoned him without doing him any further
serious harm.
Once I could not believe that a lion or a tiger could pick up a
man in his mouth and rapidly carry him off, as a fox gets away
with a chicken; but when I shot a male tiger weighing 495 pounds,
standing 37 inches high and measuring 35 inches around his jaws, I
was forever convinced. In the Malay Peninsula Captain Syers told
me that a tiger leaped a stockade seven feet high, seized a
Chinese woodcutter, leaped out with him, and carried him away.
In a scrimmage with a lion or tiger in the open, the fight is not
prolonged. It is a case of kill or be killed quickly. The time of
times for steady nerves and perfectly accurate shooting is when a
lion, tiger or bear charges the hunter at full speed, beginning
sufficiently far away to give the hunter a sporting chance. _The
hunter can not afford to be "scared!"_ It is liable to cost too
much!
The Alaskan brown bear has a peculiar habit. Occasionally he kills
the hunter he has struck down, but very often he contents himself
with biting his victim on his fleshy parts, _literally from head
to foot._ More than one unfortunate amateur hunter has been
fearfully bitten without having a bone broken, and without having
an important artery or vein severed. Such unfortunates lie upon
their faces, with their arms protecting their heads as best they
can, and take the awful punishment until the bear tires of it and
goes away. Then they _crawl,_ on hands and knees, to come
within reach of discovery and help. In the annals of Alaska's
frontier life there are some heart-rending records of cases such
as I have described, coupled with some marvellous recoveries.
Strange to say, bear bites or scratches _almost never produce
blood poisoning!_ This seems very strange, for the bites of
lions, tigers and leopards very frequently end in blood poisoning,
incurable fever and death. This probably is due to the clean mouth
of the omnivorous bear and the infected mouth of the large cats,
from putrid meat between their teeth.
_The wolf_ is particularly dangerous to his antagonists, man
or beast, from the cutting power of his fearful snap. His molar
teeth shear through flesh and small bones like the gash of a
butcher's cleaver; and his wide gape and lightning-quick
movements render him a very dangerous antagonist. The bite of a
wolf is the most dangerous to man of any animal bite to which
keepers are liable, and it is the law of zoological gardens and
parks that every wolf bite means a quick application of anti-
rabies treatment at a Pasteur institute. Personally, I would be no
more scared by a wolf-bite than by a feline bite, but the verdict
of the jury is,--"it is best to be on the safe side."
_Buck elk and deer_ very, very rarely attack men in the
wilds, unless they have been wounded and brought to bay; and then
very naturally they fight furiously. It is the attacks of captive
or park-bred animals that are most to be feared.
All the deer that I know attack in the same way,--first by a
_slow_ push forward, in order to come to close quarters
_without getting hurt,_ and then follows the relentless push,
push, push to get up steam for the final raging and death-dealing
drive. Even in fighting each other, buck elk and deer do not come
together with a long run and a grand crash. Each potential fighter
_fears for his own eyes,_ and conserves them by a cautious
and deliberate engaging process. This is referred to in another
chapter.
Fortunately for poor humanity, the same slow and cautious tactics
are adopted when a buck deer or wapiti decides to attack a man.
This gives the man in the case a chance to put up his defense.
The attacking deer lowers his head, throws his antlers far to the
front, and pushes for the body of the man. The instant a tine
touches the soft breast or abdomen, he lunges forward to drive it
in. But thanks to that life-saving slow start, the man is
mercifully afforded a few seconds of time in which to save
himself, or at least delay the punishment.
No man ever should enter the enclosure of a "bad" deer, or any
buck deer in the rut, without a stout and tough club or pitchfork
for defense. Of the two weapons, the former is the best.
In the first place, keep away from all bad deer, especially
between October and January first. If you are beset, follow these
instructions, as you value your life:
If unarmed, seize the deer by the antlers before he touches your
vitals, hold on for all you are worth, and _shout for help. Keep
your feet,_ just as long as you possibly can. Never mind being
threshed about, so long as you keep your feet and keep the tines
out of your vitals. Your three hopes are (1) that help will come,
(2) or that you can come within reach of a club or some shelter,
or (3) that the animal will in some manner decide to desist,--a
most forlorn hope.
With a good club, or even a stout walking-stick, you have a
fighting chance. As the animal lowers his head and comes close up
to impale you on his spears of bone, hit him a smashing blow
_across the side of his head, or his nose._ In a desperate
situation, _aim at the eye,_ and lay on the blows. If your
life is in danger from a buck elk or a large deer, do not hesitate
about putting out an eye for him. What are a thousand deer eyes
compared with a twelve inch horn thrust through your stomach? My
standing instructions to our keepers of dangerous animals are:
"Save your own life, at all hazards. Don't let a dangerous animal
kill you. Kill any animal rather than let it kill you!"
It is useless to strike a charging deer on the top of its head, or
on its antlers. Give a sweeping _side_ blow for the
unprotected cheek and jaw, or the tender nose. There is nothing
that a club can do that is so disconcerting as the eye and nose
attack, for a badly injured eye always shuts both eyes,
automatically. Once when alone in the corral of the axis deer
herd, I was treacherously and wantonly attacked by a full-grown
buck. I had violated my own rules about going in armed with a
stick, and it was lucky for me that the axis deer was not as large
as the barasingha or the mule deer. As the buck lowered his head,
threw his long, sharp beams straight forward, and pushed for my
vitals, I seized him by both antlers, to make my defense. At that
he drove forward and nearly upset me. Quickly I let go the right
antler and shifted myself to the animal's left side, where by
means of the left antler I pulled the struggling buck's head
around to my side. Then he began to plunge. Throwing the weight of
my chest upon his shoulders I reached over him and with my free
hand finally grasped his right foreleg below the knee, and pulled
it up clear of the ground. With that I had him.
He tried to struggle free, but I was strong in those days, and
angry besides, and he was helpless. Up beside the deer barn, most
providentially for the finish, I saw a very beautiful barrel
stave. It was the very thing! I worked him over to it, caught it
up, and then still holding him by his left antler I laid that
stave along his side until he was well punished, and glad when
released to rush from that neighborhood.
Female "pet" deer, and female elk, can and do put up dangerous
fights with their front hoofs, standing high up on their hind legs
and striking fast and furiously. A gentleman of my acquaintance
was thus attacked, most unexpectedly, by his pet white-tailed deer
doe. She struck about a dozen times for his breast, and his vest
and coat were slit open in several places. I once saw two cow elk
engage with their front feet in a hot fight, but they did no real
damage.
Of course an angry _bison, buffalo or gaur_ lowers its head
in attacking a man, and seeks to gore and toss him at the same
moment. The American bison will start at a distance of ten or
twenty yards, and with half lowered head jump forward, grunting
"Uh! Uh! Uh!" as he comes. When close up he pauses for a second
and poises his head for the toss. That is the man's one chance. At
that instant he must strike the animal on the side of his head,
and strike hard; and the region of the eye is the spot at which to
aim.
Once we were greatly frightened by the determined charge of a
savage cow bison upon Keeper McEnroe, who was armed with a short-
handled 4-tine pitchfork. As she grunted and came for him we could
not refrain from shouting a terrorized warning, "Look out,
McEnroe! Look out!"
He looked out. He stood perfectly still, and calmly awaited the
onset. The cow rushed close up, and dropped her chin low down for
the goring toss. The keeper was ready for her. Swinging his
pitchfork he delivered a smashing blow upon the left side of the
cow's head, which disconcerted and checked her. Before she could
recover herself he smashed her again, and again. Then she turned
tail and ran, followed by the shouts of the multitude.
_Adult male elephants_ are among the most dangerous of all
wild animals to keep in captivity. They _will_ grow bad-
tempered with adult age, keepers _will_ become careless of
danger that is present every day, and a bad elephant often is a
cunning and deceitful devil. The strength of an elephant is so
great, the toughness of its hide is so pronounced, and the danger
of a sudden attack is so permanent that life in a park with a
"bad" elephant is one continuous nightmare.
Naturally we have been ambitious to prevent all manner of fatal
wild beast attacks upon our keepers. We try our best to provide
for their safety, and having done that to the limit we say: "Now
it is up to you to preserve your own life. If you can not save
yourself from your bad animals, no other person can do it for
you!"
Either positively, comparatively or superlatively, a bad elephant
is a cunning, treacherous and dangerous animal. We have seen
several elephants in various stages of cussedness. Alice, the
adult Indian female, is mentally a freak, but she is not vicious
save under one peculiar combination of circumstances. Take her
outside her yard, and instantly she becomes a storm centre. Gunda
was bad to begin with, worse in continuation and murderously
worst at his finish. At present Kartoum is dangerous only to
inanimate fences and doors.
A wild elephant attacks a hunter by charging furiously and
persistently, sometimes making a real man-chase, seizing the man
or knocking him down, and then impaling him upon his tusks as he
lies. More than one hunter has been knocked down, and escaped the
impalement thrust only through the mercy of heaven that caused the
tusks to miss him and expend their murderous fury in the ample
earth.
On rare occasions an enraged wild elephant deliberately tramples a
man to death; and there is one instance on record wherein the
elephant held his dead native victim firmly to the ground while he
tore him asunder "and actually jerked his arms and legs to some
distance."
In captivity a mean elephant kills a keeper, or other person, by
suddenly knocking him down, and then either trampling upon him or
impaling him.
Gunda, our big male Indian tusker, was the worst elephant with
which I ever came in close touch, and we hope never to see his
like again. When about ten years old he came to us direct from
Assam, and when I saw his big and bulging eyes, and the slits torn
in his ears, I recognized him as a bad-tempered animal. I kept my
opinions to myself. Two weeks later when we started Gunda's Hindu
keeper back toward his native land, I sent for Keepers Gleason and
Forester to give them a choice lot of instruction in elephant
management. They heard me through attentively, and then Forester
said very solemnly:
"Director, I think that is a bad elephant; and I'm afraid of him!"
Keeper Gleason willingly took him over, on condition that he
should have sole charge of him, and as long as Gleason remained in
our service he managed the elephant successfully. Elsewhere I
have spoken at length of Gunda's mind and manners. He went
steadily from bad to worse; but we never once really punished him.
The time was when there was only one man in the world whom he
feared, and would obey, and that was his keeper, Walter Thuman. I
have seen that great dangerous beast cower and quake with fear,
and back off into a corner, when Thuman's powerful voice yelled at
him, and admonished him to behave himself. But all that ended on
the day that he "got" Thuman.
On that fateful afternoon, with no visitors present, Thuman opened
the outside door, took Gunda by the left ear, and with his steel-
shod elephant hook in his left hand started to lead the huge
animal out into his yard. Just inside the doorway Gunda thought he
saw his chance, and he took it.