St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1884-12-06
CURIOUS TRAIT OF ANIMALS
The Peculiar Fear of Dogs Mani.
tested by Panthers.
A Conical, Though Costly, Illustration of
the Dread Hogs Have OF Bears
How the Porkers Were Kept
Out OF Corn-Field.

have often wondered why writers
on natural history, traits of animals,
etc, have not noticed or commented on
the antipathy, or rather terror, that
some of our wild animals have toward
some one other particular species.
From observation, know that a
panther has deadly horror of dog
that a person accompanied by dog,
no matter how small, is safe from a
panther's attack-that any dog can
tree a panther and keep him there as
long as the dog will stay and watch
him.
Hunters who have freed a panther
with dogs do not hesitate to move close
to and under the tree, seeking a good
shot; knowing that the beast will pay
no attention to them he will have his
eyes continually on the dogs.
Some years ago while staying on
plantation on the Colorado River, in
Fayette County, Texas, q fine Illustration
of panther S fear of a dog occurred.
The old mother of the planter went
daily to the garden to gather vegetables
for the family and was always accom-
panied by small dog of the flee variety.
One day party of hunters passed, and
as they rode by the garden their hounds
struck trail in the road, sprang over
the garden fence and ran full grown
panther from among the pea vines. At
that time the old lady was not ten steps
from where the brute was concealed
He had visited the garden so often that,
in the two weeks that had elapsed since
the garden had been worked, he had
beat down a plain path from where he
regularly scaled the fence to the pea
patch. The universal belief of all was
that he came daily to seize the lady, but
that he was afraid to do so on account
of her being always accompanied by her
dog.
One night | was one of party of
coon hunters on White River, Arkansaw.
After long, weary chase the dogs freed
their game, and when we arrived we
found them under tree too large to
climb or to think of cutting So we lay
down on the ground and slept until the
light Of day awakened one of the party,
who naturally looked up in the tree as
he opened his eyes. He at once gave a
tremendous yell, sprang to his feet,
screamed Jump, boys, the tree is full
of panthers!n and dashed off at full
speed. We followed in no time to a
safe distance, then returned back close
enough to see three panthers in the tree.
And we had slept under that tree for |
several hours. Fear of our dogs had /
undoubtedly kept them from molesting
us.
Having no firearms, we decided that
the occupants of the tree were not the |
kind of acoonn we were after, and after
considerable trouble in getting the dogs
away, left the camp with the "cats' in
full possession.
The hog has the same dread of bear
that the painter has Of dog, and the
bear has the same fear of man.
/ speak by the card as to the bear
found in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas,
land venture the assertion that to-day
there are more bear, panther, wild cat
and deer In those three States than in
the same sized territory in any other
part of the Western continent.
Let bunch of hogs tton the range"
come onto bears track, or signs, or
anything that has the scent OF a bear
about it, and stampede will begin
right then, the duration of which will
depend on the wind of the hogs, for
they will run themselves down before
stopping, and that particular locality
viii be avoided until they forget all
about it, and bear is good for ten
mile run If, in his wanderings, he runs
afoul Of man or his track.
Acquaintance with these facts 10