The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1890-02-22
INDIA'S WILD ANIMALS.
Destruction They Wreak in a Year
in the Land Of Jungles.
Many Hundreds of Human Beings as
Well as Thousands of Domestic AMI
mails Fall Victims to Their Ra-
~ pacious Appotites.

Well as Thousands of Domestic AMI
mails Fall Victims to Their Fa-
" pacious Appetites.
When we consider that in the ten
years from 1877 to 1887, more than seven
thousand human beings and about one
hundred and sixty thousand cattle were
killed in India by tigers alone, we get
an idea of that beasts destructiveness,
which no single instance of its ferocity
will supply.
A recent English writer has given the
above figures from the official returns to
the government; but there can be no
doubt that many. are killed in that vast
country whose deaths are never re-
ported. ......
In addition to the ravages of tigers,
leopards, hyenas, bears. wolves, ele-
plants and crocodiles kill many people
every year, while the victims of the
deadly snakes seem rather to increase,
as they were 49, in 1880 and 10, TAO
in 1887, the last year for which returns
are given.
One reason for this is that many scots
OF natives will not kill the cobra Ca
pello, tho most common and deadly
snake, which likes holes in old walls or
gardens in the neighborhood of houses.
Often a native who discovers that a
cobra has taken up it's abode on his
premises will, for religious-or, rather,
superstitious reasons-propitiate it with
milk instead of killing it,
But aside from snakes, the most de-
structive of wild things is the tiger.
This animal seems quite familiar to us
from the specimens seen in menageries;
and from repeated descriptions, and yet,
as the writer we speak of says, there
are points about it not generally known
One is that while most of the cat kind
have vertical pupils to the eyes, the
pupil of the tigers eye is round; and,
although its hearing and sight are most
acute, its sense Of, smell is very poor.
Its sense of touch seems particularly
we'll developed in the great wire-like
hairs about the nose, usually called
Whiskers in cat. These have very
sensitive bulb or root which is full of
nerves and surrounded by muscular
hbers which move them, and by which
they feel their way through the densest
Jungle on the darkest night. The tigers
immense muscular force is we'll known,
but many are not aware of the peculiar
arrangement of the claws which arm it's
powerful limbs. 1t is evident that if
they projected as they walked, these
sharp weapons would soon be blunted
and worn. They have five toes on each
forefoot and four toes on the hindfeet,
and the claws of these are kept per-
manently turned back out of the way of
the tread by very elastic ligament.
When the animal wants to use them
they are brought down by the fexor
tendons, the same which close the fin
gers of persons hand.
The tiger is peculiar to Asia, and
while rather widely spread over that
great continent, is, of course, most
plenty and attains it's greatest size and
ferocity in the jungles of India proper.
The largest tiger easily exceeds in size
and power the largest lion. The writer
says that he has seen a tiger killed
which measured ten feet eight inches,
and he has known of one or two which
measured twelve feet; but this is the
extreme, and the tigress is, as a rule,
smaller. Some times, when a tiger has
overcome it's natural fear Of the human
form, he finds it easier to kill men than
cattle, deer or wild boar, and he then
becomes a man-eater This is said to
be especially true of old tigers, which
have lost their agility and whose teeth
TOW
have quoted mentions one tiger, near
Nynoetal, which, for three years,
prowled within circuit of twenty
miles, and killed an average of eighty
persons each year. At the end of that
time it was fortunately destroyed. On
such matters the natives often have
fatal apathy, and continue their usual
employment in the same places, while
the savage beast takes toll of their num-
bers every few days.
Sometimes a herd of cattle will form
in u circle and beat off the attack of
tiger, while their herdsman is protected
by taking refuge inside, but often they
make no moro resistance and take no
more precautions than sheep would do.
AS general thing, the tiger does not
roar like the lion, although there are
times when he does. He usually emits
a peculiar deep growl when disturbed or
alarmed, which he repeats loudly and
rapidly as he charges; and q wounded
tiger, with ears laid back, eyes glaring,
fangs displayed and hair erect, as he
charges with these hoarse, angry growls,
is one Of the most terrifying of Great
ures, and it requires much more than
ordinary nerve for the hunter, however
we'll armed. to then meet him.
p. Their night-call to each other is a
long, wailing howl, which is particular
ly alarming, especially when first heard.
There are many European sportsmen,
as we'll as native hunters called shika7-
raes-who go long distances to look for
tigers which have acquired bad repu-
tation, either from man-killing or carry
ing off cattle.
Sometimes the creatures are shot from
elephants, being driven out by the ma