St. Landry democrat., 1890-07-26
BEASTS IN CAPTIVITY.

BEASTS IN CAPTIVITY.
MATERNAL LOVE AND WATCHFULNESs SEEN
IN A MENAGERIE
The conduct and methods of the NAM
mails in their maternal capacity, IS exhib-
tied in circus menagerie, might be stud
led with profit by American matrons. Ac-
cording to the testimony of Superinten-
dent Conklin, of Barnums circus, every
animal, if properly fed. and kept free from
noisy intrusion and worry, will rear its
young with unvarying care and affection,
and further, he believes that animals of
every species, which have ever survived
in state of captivity will breed, and he
offers the best possible justification of this
belief by saying that, during an expert
ence of thirty years, he has never had
charge of animals that did not breed.
OF course, he does not mean that every
individual female has had young ones. for
many individuals are barren. In the case
of some species, however, the animals Of
one sex are never caught, and consequently
young ones are never born among these
An example of such animals is the laugh
ing and crying hyena. The female hyena
is seldom caught, although the male is
very ;ordinary inhsbitans Of menageries.
The males of some other kinds of animals
are never caught.
PERFECT MOTHER.
As an example of perfect mother may
be taken the S-year-old lioness, Belle, in
Barnum's circus. Rather more than year
ago, she had two whelps. fine fat fellows.
She fed them regularly, and took every
possible care of them, but, most remarka-
BILE to state she not only allowed any body
to look at the cubs, but let the keepers
take them out of the cage for half an hour
at time She neither resented this, nor
relaxed her care of the little ones. With
many animals, such liberties would have
ended in the killing or abandonment Of
the cubs.
Belle is large lioness In excellent ply
steal condition. She has powerful and
expressive coultenanc.. The cubs are
stolid looking fellows, with not half the
intelligence of their mother. They are
not savage, but have no particular respect
for the keepers or the public
The Iioness weans her cubs when they
are nine months old. Before they attain
that age she takes all meat and solid food
away from them. although at times they
would very much like to have some. At
the end of nine months she selects the
tenderest pieces of meat to give to them.
Soon after that they are taken from their
mother and placed in residences of their
own
PECULLARITIEs OF BREEDING.
Tigers, leopards and other felines must
oe left alone with their young. II they
are not separated from the other animals,
including males of their own species, they
will probably kill the young ones. Not
long ago leopard ate up her three cubs
simply because she was stared at so much,
and did not want her offspring to grow up
to live life like hers.
In case it is not possible, on account of
bad temper, death, or illness, for the
mother to suckle them, young lions, tigers,
leopsrds and wolves are given to New
fou adland or St Bernard dogs to suckle.
They only remain with the dogs four or
five weeks. After that there might be
danger that they would gobble up their
foster mothers. Animals reared in this
way are not so healthy as those sucked
by their own mothers. They are apt to
have the ricketts,.
Lions and tigers have three or four
young ones at a time, the leopard FIVE.
bears three or four, monkeys one, ele-
plants one, gratis one, nylghaus two and
antelopes one.
Monkeys do not breed much in the cap
tivity of menagerie, because they are al
ways dying. the monkey who goes
around with his Italian master in all
weather gets as hardy as it is possible to
be. But the menagerie monkey is PAM
pered and kept in q warm cage, so that
shower of rain or draugh' of air will kill
him. The white Chinese monkey posses
ses the strongest constitution Of any SIM
ian. He is big fellow, with an arm like
blacksmith's, and apt to be quarrelsome.
The mandrill, who is distinguished by
blue checks and red nose; is affectionate
and very DELEGATE.
AN ELEPHANT STORY.
The mother elephant bestows the great
est care and affection on her offspring.
This fact is illustrated by the following
story
A gentleman well known in this city
| paid visit, when 10 years old, to circus
in Brooklyn.
| An elephant and her Young one were
the center of attraction for crowds of
Brooklyn small boys. The young elephant
had not attained by the course of years
that discretion which would enable him
to decide what was within his powers of
digestion, and he would have swallowed
hat as cheerfully as bundle of hay. On
this account his mother took all the ar
ticles which were handed to him, exam
ined them for an instant and then, If they
| were quite good to eat, she gave them to
him if they were only moderately good
she ate them herself, and if they were not
| good at all she returned them to the gen.
erous giver.
Several youths found amusement in
handing in their caps, which were returned
as no good, because they were made OF
cloth. The youth of whom we speak was
| never lacking in enterprise and he, too,
passed in his hat. 1t was promptly eaten
| by the mother elephant 1t was large
| new straw one The sufferer complained
very loudly to the manager of the circus,
but was unable to regain his property.
| Animals born and raised in confinement
are usually as strong and healthy as their
relatives from the wilderness. But. strange
to say, they are much less easily tanned.
Familiarity with man has bred contempt.
Such animals are not always savage, but
they calmly decline to make an exhibition
of themselves by doing ridiculous tricks.
Trainers say that for their purposes ami
mails born in confinement are useless. -
New York Epening Sun.
Soothing Power of Nurses Hand
II will tell you when there is agitation
in the sick room" said nurse. IT ~
when the women of household think
that male patient is fond OF nurse. IL
ia often the case that asick man, exhausted
and feeble, clinging to life like drown
ing man to a straw, will want to hold your
hand. Now, in such cases, my mana per
forms the same duty that straw woulo.