Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-08-05
TRAINING WILD ANIMALS.
Experiences of an Expert.

Carl Hagenbeck in the Chicago Record.
Patience is the one requisite in the make
up Of a successful animal trainer In an
active life In this field since 1852 1 have
found that there Is no animal. no matter
how savage, that is not amenable to kind
ness.
The really difficult task in training ami
mails Is to get those Of savage and those Of
domestic birth to associate without fight
ing. This can only be done by taking them
when they are very young
1t, perhaps, looks easy to see q lion riding
on horses back, but 1t requires long and
patient work. In the first place the horse
and the young lion are put in cages where
they can see each other. After few
weeks they are both put in the same cage.
but tied SO they cannot reach each other.
After few weeks Of this the young lion.
which in the meantime has been trained
to admit handling by the trainers il
taken to larger cage with the horse. The
hon has three ropes to its collar and 10
ter how young. the lion will attack any
domestic animal. And so on the process
Is Kept up. and it nearly always requires q
year 10 properly train q lion.
Accidents in Handling Animals.
Accidents are very rare. never had
one in my life. That which occurred to
Miss Berg the other day was largely her
own fault 1t would never have hap
pened had she not made the mistake OF
tiger did not know her. The extremely hot
weather may have also had its share in
the matter, as animals DO not stand the
and nervous.
The most accidents with trained animals
occur because people do not know how to
studied. otherwise 1t is not possible to do
It, You have to study the character Of the
hee
hurt and killed because they did not know
their business. 1t is the same thing all
and he does not know anything about it.
You may be sure 1t will lead to an accident
in some way or other.
To give a performance Of the so-called
wild animal training you only need a lot
of nervous animals, and II you do under
stand bit Of 1t you can make them Jump
and growl to make the strongest man nerv-
Gus, but you must understand how to treat
nervous animals-you must know how far
and that Is where the accidents occur.
Tanning the Fiercest Beasts.
have been in the animal business since
I was eight years old, when my father be-
gan it. have handled more wild animals
than anybody in the world and I have
Penang tiger. 1t was the most ferocious
beast I ever had. Yet I tried to tame him.
and five weeks after he arrived got him
to come to the front of the cage and
full.
The wid-caught animals can never be
trained so that one can go into their cage.
The high perfection of training can only
be done by getting the animals very young
and handling them from morning to night.
To make up the group of animals which
Miss Berg introduced I had an expense Of
$4,000 only for building to train them in.
No one has an idea of the trouble and work
to get wild animals to that perfection of
training that they can be taken in the cage
together with tame animals, such as goats,
sheep and ponies.
Patience and Courage Are Necessary.
Any animal can be trained If you get II
young enough. Some you can only handle
certain time, for, when through some
mistake they get nervous they can never
be used again. Others keep always quiet
and get tanner the longer they are handled.
The capturing of animals while young Is
attended by great risk to human life. Trap
ping has not been as a rule successful. In
the majority of cases the parent animals
have to be killed to secure the young.
have agents all over the world who are in
constant communication with me and
have a large force of men travelling all the
time, L am almost alone In the business
1t is very risky, for 1t Is impossible to tell
how animals will turn out and the change
of climate often kills them Once having
exercised patience and trained the animals
the trainer must never lose his nerve
Never for an instant must he let the animal
see that he is afraid. That would be
fatal. No matter what circumstances arise
he must always be brave, firm, and, at the
same time, have patience.