THE WILD ANIMALS’ KINDERGARTEN
An animal learns by association. Though it is a common belief, fear is
not the reason for his obedience to the trainer’s commands. Habit and
ignorance are what cause the animal to become an apt pupil in the hands
of the trainer. The animal becomes accustomed to the same way of doing
the same things at much the same time, and ignorance of his own power
keeps him in this state of subjection.
[Illustration: TEACHING A LION TO RIDE A TRICYCLE]
This habit is developed in the animal by a laborious and patient
process, and it requires an intimate knowledge of animal nature to
perfect it. The easiest animal to train is one that is born in his
native haunts and new to captivity. The reason is obvious. The one
bred in captivity has nothing to fear from man, and knows his own
strength and the fear he inspires. Accustomed from earliest infancy
to the greatest care and coddling, he arrives one day at the stage of
growth where he realizes the value of his own claws, for the use of
them has shown him that human beings do not like to be scratched. Some
attendant, who has, perhaps, been playing with him day by day, admiring
his pretty, innocent-looking little face, soft furry body, and velvety
paws while he is still a mere cub, drops him suddenly one day when he
feels the deep prick of the claws hidden in those paws. The next time
some one comes along, the cub may not be in the mood for handling; he
remembers his past experience, that scratching means “let go,” and he
puts this into practice. His liberty is promptly secured, and he lies
in peace in his cage.
The next man who comes may get a deeper scratch, and he lets the cub
alone even more severely, a fact that the cub notes and remembers
the next time, for he is gradually acquiring a deeper disrespect for
man and his puerile ways; he is beginning to know the value of the
little knives he carries sheathed in those paws, and he is very soon
autocratic in his independence. He accepts his food as tribute and his
care as homage due, and regards man simply as another and much weaker
animal.
Such an animal is difficult to train. The only method that may be
pursued at all is severe letting alone for several years. All that time
he holds himself more and more aloof. He is, in a way, congratulating
himself on his success, and man in time becomes a shadowy being who
periodically brings his food, and who, in some inexplicable way, keeps
him in that oblong box for people to stare at.
He does not mind the people, nor does he mind the cage very much, for
he has never known anything else; but deep in him--so deep that he
barely realizes its existence--slumbers a desire for freedom and an
unutterable longing for the blue sky and the free air. Man, in some
way, is to blame for that intangible “something” that he wants, and
scarcely knows that he wants; and man has shown him that he is afraid
of his claws, and, therefore, the animal hates and despises man and
all belonging to him.
The cub grows insolent in his haughtiness; then his undefined desire
for freedom decreases somewhat, becomes more and more vague, and his
existence is finally comprised in just two sensations: eating and
sleeping. The disturbance of either is an insult, and any one who
disturbs either an enemy. Man allows both to continue, and so the cub
in his arrogance tolerates him.
The cub passes beyond his days of cubhood, and acquires almost the
years and stature of a full-grown lion. He has few of the qualities
of the newly captured animal. He does not fear man; he knows his own
power. He regards man, as an inferior, with an attitude of disdain and
silent hauteur.
When it is considered that his memory of the days when scratching
insured independence has faded, his training is begun. He meets it with
a reserved majesty and silent indifference, as though he had a dumb
realization of his wrongs.
He has probably been in a large cage. This is changed to a smaller
one that has movable bars. The bars are fitted in this way for a
definite purpose. Until now the lion has kept in the rear of his cage,
as far as possible from the man who feeds him, grabbing his meat and
retreating with a sullen growl. It is desired to bring him into closer
relationship with his would-be trainer.
The bars are moved day by day. Soon the cage is small enough to permit
a fairly long stick to reach from the front to the back. Such a stick,
in the hands of a man, is introduced and allowed to remain several
hours. The lion may take no notice of it; he may growl and he may
grab it. Whatever he does, the stick is kept there and replaced if
destroyed. When he has grown accustomed to the stick, it is gently
rubbed along his neck and back. Though he snaps at it at first, when
once he finds that the stroking is a pleasure, he soon allows it to be
done without any protest.
[Illustration: POLAR BEAR USED AT PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION FOR DRAWING
CHILDREN’S CARRIAGE]
Sometimes a piece of meat is put at the end of the stick by the
trainer, and this is found to act as an inducement to allow the stick
to come close to the animal. Very often the lion will crunch the
stick to splinters, and this the trainer allows, as he wishes to prove
to the animal that he has nothing to fear from the stick itself. In a
very short time he takes the meat quietly, without even growling at
the stick; and when this stage of the proceedings is reached the stick
is made shorter each day, until finally it is not much longer than the
hand.
As a rule, when once the stick trick has been accomplished with an
animal, it is comparatively easy to get on a little farther, for by
that time the animal not only has no objection to the presence of the
trainer, but appears to look for him and expect him. His objections,
suspicions, and resentment disappear, and very soon the fingers replace
the stick in the stroking process, and, being softer and more soothing
than the stick, seem to give greater pleasure than the wood. This is a
great step taken, for one of the most difficult things is to get any
wild animal to allow himself to be touched with the human hand.
With a lion which comes straight from Africa or Asia, the case is
different. Lions are usually trained when between two and three years
of age. A two-year-old of fine physique and restless nature has been
brought straight from his native haunts. There he has been actually the
monarch of the jungle. His life has been free and fearless.
Suddenly, in the midst of his regal existence, he falls into a hidden
pit or is snared in the woods. His desperate struggles, his rage and
gnashing of teeth, all the force of his tremendous strength, are
ineffectual in breaking the bonds of his captivity.
After his first supreme efforts are over and he has thoroughly
exhausted himself, he proves himself a very king of beasts in his
haughty disdain. He apparently realizes his helplessness and submits to
everything in sullen, dignified silence.
The lion comes to the trainer from the jungle, after having been
subjected to abuse and gross indignities. From the time of his capture
by natives who have neither feeling nor consideration for the poor
animal, until he reaches his final quarters, his treatment, as a rule,
is such as to terrify him and render him nervous in the extreme.
He has been kept in cramped quarters, cruelly joggled and crushed
in a narrow box, while on his way to the coast from the interior,
his bedding left unchanged, and the poor food with which he has been
provided thrown carelessly into the refuse and offal which surround
him. Clean and fastidious, as the lion always is about his food
and person, he often refuses to eat, and this, added sometimes to
seasickness, makes his suffering terrible.
The finest health and strength will not stand such a strain for long,
and by the time the journey is ended the lion is disgusted with man and
his ways. In many cases he arrives in Europe or America sick and weak,
and appears only too ready to die and get rid of his troubles. The only
passion he has in this state is a genuine hate for man, and this hate
seems to be the only thing which arouses him at all.
It frequently happens that wild animals kill themselves in frenzies of
fear during transportation. Everything in their surroundings is new
and strange to them. They have lost their freedom and the fresh air;
they are cramped and half stifled in close quarters, surrounded by
dirt and unwholesomeness, and cannot even keep their bodies still for
two seconds, owing to the perpetual motion which goes on, and which,
perhaps, terrifies them more than anything else. Therefore, when a wild
animal is first turned over to the trainer, he is practically mad with
his experiences and terrors.
Then begins the training. One man, and one man only, has him in care,
and it is always essential in these cases to choose a quiet trainer.
This is one of the reasons why Captain Bonavita has made such a success
in training lions. He is always quiet and self-possessed, even in times
of extreme peril; and this quietness has more effect on wild animals,
particularly lions, than anything else. In some way it seems to
communicate itself to them and allays their fears. Often a lion rushing
round and round a cage will be calmed down by a gentle “Whoa, whoa,”
spoken in a soothing manner.
The first thing which is done is to attend to the animal’s bodily
comfort. In place of dirt and unwholesomeness is cleanliness; in place
of the filthy, reeking bed is a fresh, sweet one of dry straw; and
fresh food and water are brought to him, always by the same trainer,
who invariably speaks a few soothing words in a quiet voice when Leo
begins to race wildly round the cage in the vain effort to get out.
A very large cage is never given at first, but the one provided is a
great improvement on his old cramped quarters. Were it too large, the
animal would destroy or seriously injure himself in trying to escape.
It is generally just large enough for him to turn round in comfortably,
but not high enough to spring about in too much.
The feeding of the animal is the first step in his training. The
trainer takes him about six pounds of fresh beef or mutton, with a
piece of bone, once a day, and fresh, clear water three times a day. No
one but the trainer is permitted to go near him or to look at him. He
must become acquainted with the trainer’s personality, and must be made
to realize that his food and drink come from the trainer only. He must
also be made clearly to understand that the trainer means him no harm,
but does everything for his comfort.
The meat is usually put upon the end of a long iron fork, and passed
to him through the bars. He has to come a little way forward to take
the meat, and gradually, without thinking about it, he comes close to
the trainer. At first the water-pan is tied to the edge of the cage,
because in trying to draw the pan toward him the animal would upset
it and make the cage wet and uncomfortable. There would also be the
difficulty of getting it out again with a stick, which might arouse the
animal’s anger.
When the lion and his trainer have once become acquainted, he is
transferred to another cage; and here again, for two weeks, he is
fed, watered, and taken care of by the same trainer, until the animal
not only gets accustomed to him, but looks forward to his presence,
because it invariably means something pleasant to himself. In about six
weeks’ time a loose collar is slipped around the lion’s neck when he is
asleep. Attached to this collar is a chain, long enough for the animal
to move about, but just short enough to keep him from reaching the end
of the cage.
The next step is for the trainer to put a chair inside the cage.
Instantly the lion springs for it, but, being kept in check by the
chain, finds he cannot reach it, and retires to a corner, growling
sulkily at the intruder. After casting vindictive glances at it, with
occasional growls, he becomes accustomed to its presence and takes no
further notice of it. Then the trainer, after opening the door of the
cage once or twice and looking in, finally walks calmly in himself
and sits on the chair. He is just out of reach of the lion, and when
the animal has growled and resented it as he did the chair, he again
subsides into indifference.
Then comes the time when the lion is released from the chain, when the
trainer takes his life in his hands, and when he knows that the moment
of extreme danger has arrived. No matter how quiet and docile the lion
may have appeared to be when chained, he is likely to develop suddenly
a ferocious savagery when released.
At this stage Captain Bonavita always carries two stout oak sticks, one
in the right hand and one in the left. The one in the right he keeps
for immediate use, and when once punished with this stick, the lion,
not knowing the purpose of the stick in the left hand, comes to fear
that also and backs away from it. If possible, the sticks are used to
stroke the lion, if he will permit it; for the condition of a wild
animal is one of receptivity--he is willing to welcome anything that
will give him pleasure. But it is rarely, indeed, at this stage of the
proceedings that he will allow this.
In the first place, the lion is generally a little frightened or
nervous himself, and alarm begets wrath. It is feline nature to
dissemble that wrath until the moment of action. Leo does not growl
or lash his tail. It is not the growling lion that is to be feared
most, nor does the lashing tail, as so many suppose, indicate danger.
Not anger, but good humor, comes from such indications. It is when the
tail stands out straight and rigid that the trainer begins to think of
retreat.
[Illustration: ELEPHANTS AND TRAINER]
When the tail becomes stiff in this manner, it is generally a pretty
sure indication that the animal is going to spring. When the trainer
sees that tail become like an iron bar, he tries to slip out at the
door; sometimes he knows he will never have the opportunity. Before
the lion springs he glances aside carelessly, growling quietly, and
the next instant, with open mouth and all four paws distended, he is
sailing through the air, straight for the throat of the man, his tense
body rigid with passion, and his five hundred pounds of sinew and
muscle ready to descend on the intruder.
The man who will not have foreseen that terrific onslaught, holding
himself in readiness for it, has no business with wild animals, and
will, in all probability, never again attempt any dealings with them,
because he will never have the chance. The agility which is one of the
requisite qualities for a trainer must come into play, and upon it
depends his life.
It is here that the chair, which plays no small part in an animal’s
education, comes into use again. That chair was not brought into the
cage merely for comfort. It is the best defense possible against the
lion’s spring. Swift and apparently unpremeditated as the spring has
been, the man has seen the tenseness of the muscles that preceded it,
and before the animal has reached him, the stout legs of the chair are
bristling between them.
Here is another problem for the lion. This unknown thing has suddenly
assumed an unexpected and possibly a deadly significance. Snarling, he
drops on his haunches and claws at the barrier; perhaps he has plumped
into it and has felt the blows from its dull prongs. Then out from
behind it springs a stick--the same stick of his pleasant memories, but
turned to base uses now, for it flicks him smartly on the tip of his
nose, just where a lion keeps all his most sensitive feelings.
Again it lands, and the chances are ten to one that two blows on that
tender spot are enough. Howling with rage and discomfiture, the lion
ceases to claw the chair and retires to his corner, very crestfallen
and extremely puzzled and bewildered. By the time he has had leisure
to consider the strange performance, the trainer is out of the cage,
leaving the chair behind him.
Now the lion may do any one or all of several things, according to the
depth of his emotions. He may glower and sulk in his corner; he may
rant and tear about his cage, giving vent to his outraged feelings in
loud roars; he may go for the chair and dismember it (not without scars
to his own hide, probably); or he may settle down to think matters over
calmly, possibly coming to the conclusion that it is unwise to attack
any strange thing before finding out whether it can hurt in return.
Generally, after this chair incident, when the lion has got the worst
of it, he calms down fairly soon, and on the reappearance of his
trainer some time afterward has evidently forgotten the unpleasantness
of it all, and remembers only that it is the trainer who brings him all
he wants. In some cases he greets him with a gentle rubbing against
the bars of his cage and a soft purr, for he is only a big cat, after
all. The meat is taken with a slightly subdued air, he allows himself
to be stroked and patted,--outside the bars,--and so another great step
in his education has been taken and accomplished successfully.