The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-12-14
ANIMALS FEAR or MAN.
II IL Not n Natural Instinct, But Re.
suits From Bitter Experience.

According to the evidence collected
by ancient and modern natnrhi,>ts,
from Don Felix d A2ara to Mr.. llud.
son, the puma, tie second largest OF
che big cats Of 81 th America, ncithcr
feared man nor regarded human beings
as it's prey, hut on the contrary sought
thcr society, and even protected man
from the attacks Of the jaguar. Trust
worthy facts which lend additinnal
confirmation to this interesting uucS
tion must necessarily he slowly ac.
quircd. The following anccdotc, which
comes first hand from one long resi-.
dent in British Guiana, support, the
belief that the puma seeks the socicty
ef man instead Of attackin- or fearing
him. When making an expedition up
enc Of the large rivers in "a steam
launch our friend gave a passage TO an
elderly Cornish miner, who was anxi-
GUS 90 reach the gold fields. Not
wishing to intrudc upon his hosts, he
did not sleep on board the launch, but
always slung his hammock between
two trees on shore. AS climbing into
a high sung hammock is not c,sy, he
usually fastened it rather low, aud his
weight brought it to within three feet
Of the ground at the bottom Of the
curve. One morning. being asked
how he slept, he complained that the
frogs had made such noise under
meath his hammock that they had kept
him awake. Some Indians Of the
crew, who were folding up the ham
mock, laughed Il good deal when they
heard shis. and being asked the rca-
son, said, still laughing "Oh, tiger
sleep with an old man last night.
They had found under the hammock
She marks OF where a puma had lain.
The noise which had kept the occu
pier OF the hammock awake was proba
by the purring Of the puma, pleased
at occupying The next birth below Il
man. As these Guiana Indians have,
in addition to the uncrring eye OF she
forest dwcllcr, special liking and
capacity for tanning animals, it can
hardly be doubted that their conelu-
sion was correct. Such an absence Of
fear and liking for human society,
could only bc parallclcd by the be-
havior of some domestic eats.
Yet in the case Of the puma this
can only be Il survival Of IL primitive
disposition, which has already been
lost in u great measure by the same
species in North America. Are we,
then, to suppose that that absence of
fear Of man SO general even among the
large carnivora was the rule in the
primitive world? If it was. VIC shall
have to account for the survival Of
man in the presence Of creatures which
did not fear him, and possessed far
mere effective physical equipment for
attack than man possessed for dc.
fcnsc, for we can not suppose that the
benevolent neutrality which can safely
be attributed to thc.puma was exhibit.
ed by the other carnivora. The cvi-
dence shat fear is not the natural atti
tudc Of animals toward man is mainly
Of two ;kinds-thcono Of explorers
who have pushed into the few regions
Of earth where animals were numcr-
Gus, but man had not troddcn, and
the results.of the very latest expert
mcnts Of to-day in districts where the
killing Of animals has been absolutely
prohibited. In other words, We must
compare the behavior Of the creatures
in the Arctic seas in the days of the
Willoughby Eand Bcrants, or in the
voyage Of Wcddcll To the Antarctic,
with the. latest reports from \ elbow
stonG Park. f,Tlic results show u slrik-
ing agreement in the dcmcanor of the
beasts when first confronted with the
new creature, man. Few Of them cx-
hibitcd fear, so far as the records
show. When Bcrants crew was on
its first voyage q polar bear, who
probably had never seen men before,
took one Of the crew, who was lying
down, by the back Of the neck, and
dragging him some way: bit the top of
his head Oft. Even now the polar bear
is the'lcast shy Of his race, though 40
constantly hunted
The general tendency Of wild AMI
mails kept in large reserves and never
molcsted points ITO the same conclu-
sion. though for obvious reasons none
of thc.most dangerous carnivora can
be maintained in such places. The
fear Of man is lost by crcatu cs wild
and free. but unmolcstcd so quickly as
to be matter Of surprise to those
most conversant with animals in cap.
tiyitv RepOrta nuhli1hcd in tho