Los Angeles herald., 1890-08-09
BEASTS IN CAPTIVITY.
MATERNAL LOVE, AND wATcHFuL-
NESS SEEN IN A MENAGERiE.


n Laeness That Is Typical Mother.
Beasts That Eat Their Young-Animals
Dorn Captives Are Useless for Exhibi-
SION Purposes.
Tho conduct and methods of the man.
mals In their maternal capacity, as ex-
hlhited in a circus menagerie, might be
s1udied with profit by American matrons.
According to the testimony of Superintend-
ent Conklin of Barnum's circus every ami
NAL. If properly fed and kept free from
noisy intrusion and worry, will rear it's
young with unvarying care and affection,
and further he believes that animals of
every species which has ever survived in
state of captivity will breed, and he offers
the best possible justification of this belief
By saying that he has never during an ex-
perience of thirty years had charge of ami
mails which did not breed. Of course, he
docs not mean that every individual female
hAs had young ones, for many individuals
nEe barren. In the case of some species.
however, the animals of one sex are never
caught, and consequently young ones are
net born among these. An example of
such animals is the laughing and crying
hysna- The female hyena is seldom caught,
although the male is a very ordinary in
habitant of menageries. The males OF
some other kinds of animals are never
Caught.
A PERFECT MOTHER.
As an example of perfect mother NAV
be taken the 3year-old lioness Belle in Bar
NUNS circus. Rather more than a year
agp she had two whelps, fine fat fellows.
She fed them regularly and took every
possible care OF them but, most remarka-
bae TO state, she not only allowed anybody
10 look at the cubs, but let the keepers
take them out of the cage for half an hour
1t q time. She neither resented this nor
xelaxed her care for the little ones. With
many animals such liberties would have
ended in the killing or abandonment of
the cubs.
Belle is large ionessin excellent physi-
cal condition. She has powerful and ex-
pressive countenance. The cubs are stolid
hooking fellows, with not half as much in
taihgence as their mother. They are not
savage. but have no particular respect for
the keepers or the public.
The lioness weans her cubs when they
1re nine months old. Before they attain
that age she takes all meat and solid food
away from them, although at times they
"A
the end Of nine months she selects the ten
derest pieces of meat to give to them. Soon
1fter that they are taken from their mother
and placed in residences of their own.
PECULIARITIEs OF BREEDING.
Tigers, leopards and other felines must
be left alone with their young. If they are
not separated from the other animals, in
Guiding males of their own species, they
viii 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
10 live life like hers
In case it is not possible, on account of
bad temper, death or illness, for the mother
tosuckle them, young lions, tigers, leopards
and wolves are given to Newfoundland or
st. Bernard dogs to suckle. They only re-
unain with the dogs four or five weeks. AT
ter 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
eoes at time, the leopard five, bears three
or four, monkeys one, elephants one, gi-
xaffs one, nylghaus two and antelopes
Une.
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
- hardy as it Is possible to be. But the
menagerie monkey is pampered and kept
In warm cage, so that q shower of rain
or draught of air will kill him. The white
Chinese monkey possesses the strongest
constitution of any simian. He is a big
1ellow, with an arm like blacksmith's, S,
and apt to be quarrelsome. The mandrill,
who is distinguished by blue cheeks and
q red nose, is affectionate and very deli
cate.
AN ELEPHANT STORY.
The mother elephant bestows the greatest
care and affection on her offspring This
1Act is illustrated by the following story:
A gentleman we'll 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 dis
erection 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 ac-
count his mother took all the articles which
were handed to him, examined 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 generous giver.
Several youths found amusement in
handing in their caps, which were returned
rs 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 Evening Sun.
Why He Bought the Pies.
At the close of fair in Boston the un-
sold articles were sold at auction, and a