The Tigress Mother's Special Duties
So far I have described to you how the tiger cubs learn the lessons of
the jungle from their father and mother.
But sometimes they have to learn some of their lessons from their mother
alone. Food may be scarce in that part of the jungle. A tiger family
eats so much that even if they catch a large wild pig or a deer every
day, it will hardly provide more than a single meal for a tiger, a
tigress, and two or three growing cubs.
And as they do not usually catch prey every day, the family eats only
about two or three times a week. When the cubs are from six to ten
months old and need more and more food, one prey at a time is not enough
to provide for the whole family--if they all live together. So it is
better for the family that the father should go away and catch his own
food, while the mother catches food for herself and the cubs.
But before going to earn his living elsewhere, the tiger takes his
family to the _easiest_ hunting ground there is near their jungle,
where there is at least some kind of prey to catch. Then the tiger
himself goes to a more difficult hunting ground. So even in that a tiger
is kind to his family, and he does the best he can for them.
At first he returns to the family every few days; I suppose he does that
to see how they are getting along in his absence. By that time the cubs
have learned most of their lessons, and the mother tigress continues the
lessons during the tiger's absence.
But after the cubs are ten months old, they have learned all their
lessons; they only need to _practice_ what they have learned. As they
can do that with their mother, they do not need their father any more.
So the tiger then goes on his travels to distant parts.
As the cubs practice with their mother the different ways of catching
and killing the prey, she must provide them with many chances of doing
so. It is then that she helps the cubs to kill more animals than they
can eat. That is why people give the tiger a bad name and call him a
"bloodthirsty" animal. It is not he at all, but the tigress mother. And
she helps to kill a large number of animals only at this time--when she
must provide her cubs with the chance of practicing their lessons.
The tiger cubs do not need even their mother when they are two years
old. By that time they are quite able to get their own living by
catching every kind of prey. But still they usually stay on with their
mother for about six months more. Then they leave their mother, and roam
the jungle alone, each cub separately.
But each cub still continues to grow in _size_ till the age of four
years. A male tiger may even grow in _strength_ till he is six years
old.
But you may want to know if a tiger family ever meet again after they
have all separated. That may sometimes happen. It may be in the dry
season, when nearly all the water in the jungle is dried up. Then by
some wonderful instinct _all_ the animals in the different parts of that
dry region know that there may be one place where there is water. So a
general migration begins toward that place; that is, _all_ the animals
begin to travel to that place with their families.
These animals may start from different places a hundred miles apart, and
yet after a few days they will get to that same Water Hole. Of course
they do not all reach it on the same day; but many of the animals stay
near there for a few days, till the rain comes and there is water in
other places. So it does happen that a tiger family may meet again at
the Water Hole, and then there is a happy reunion among them.
_The Truce of the Water Hole_
But the tiger family must not kill a prey at the Water Hole. And all
other flesh-eating animals--lions and leopards, and wolves and
hyenas--must also abstain from killing prey there. Hundreds of pigs and
sheep and deer may have come to drink at the Water Hole--- and every
flesh-eating animal must abstain from killing any one of the pigs or
sheep or deer.
This "Truce of the Water Hole" is one of the greatest wonders of the
jungle. It means that in other parts of the jungle there may be a kind
of war, because flesh-eating animals may kill and eat their prey, but
when all the different animals meet to quench their thirst at the Water
Hole, there must be no war--no killing, no fighting. There must be peace
at that place while the different animals are there.
At the Water Hole the tiger and the lamb may drink together in peace;
and hungry as the tiger may be, he must not hurt the lamb. And the
wonder of it is that the tiger knows that law, and always keeps it.
Likewise all other flesh-eating animals always keep that law; they never
hurt even the weakest and most timid animal at the Water Hole.
They all feel that they have come there for a greater need than
_hunger_--they have come there to quench their _thirst_; and the pain of
thirst is greater than the pain of hunger.
They feel that the pain of thirst is common to them all; that is, they
all suffer from that pain. Different animals _eat_ different things; but
they must all _drink water_. And in that fellow feeling there is peace
among them all.
My dear children, let me impress this upon your minds, while you are
still young. When you grow up, you may sometimes be tempted to doubt
that an all-merciful Providence watches over us. Then remember these
wonders of the jungle that I have described to you. And remember
especially the Water Hole, where all animals are like brothers, where
even the tiger and the lamb drink and lie down together in peace.