The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-09
THE BEASTS THAT PERIsH.y
Natural Denth in the Animal


WerId.
Mr.. F. G. Affalo, in the st. James Gazette
If death by accident is comparatively
rare among animals, those which die a
natural death" meet 1t in the form OF
starvation. II is difficult to avoid the con-
clusion that wild animals, enfeebled by
weakness or physical decay, do so perish
because of the absence of aid in sickness
But IL the bills of mortality from causes
other than the violence of predatory spe-
cIes could be made out for the animal
world, there would probably be good
ground to modify the conclusion that this
lingering death is in store for the ma
| jor-tv.
The subject is complicated, says a writer
! in the Spectator, by a kind of mystery
| which has been long recognized in COM
mon experience, and is now attracting
some OF the attention it deserves from
| travellers and naturalists, the disappear
| ance, namely, of the animal dead, other
than those killed by accident or violence.
| In tropical countries rapid decay dissolves
| the tissues of flesh, and bone devouring
beasts, like the hyena, may destroy the
| largest bones. But there is one region in
which we should expect to find the bodies
of such animals as have died a natural
|
| frozen rim of the old world from the Pet
chora to Boring sea, a region where even
the fruits forced into being by the Arctic
| summer, are preserved fresh beneath the
| snow until the ensuing spring, and the re-
mains of prehistoric beastS-the mammoth
and Siberian rhinoceros-have only under
gone partial decay in the frozen soil Here
| we should also expect TO discover the
| bodies of animals which had died at the
end of the summer "coldstored" till the
| snow broke up in the Arctic spring.
For this life during the Arctic summer
| is numbered by millions; there is probably
no such gathering of birds on any part of
the globe as on the Arctic tundra in July
| and August, while large and small man.
mails, seals walrus, reindeer fox and lem
| mings also abound. Do they never die, or
what becomes of their bodies? For the lat
ter are almost never seen. Nordenskjold
| in his Voyage of the Vega more than
once recurs 10 this strange absence of the
animal dead. In an ice beset channel
| among some Arctic islands off the mouth
| of the Yenesei he saw great number of
| dead fish-Gadus pOlars- and next day
saw the sea bottom, where the water was
very clear, bestrewn with "innumerable
fish" of the same species. which had prob
| ably met their death by the shoal being
| inclosed by ice in a small hole, where
the water could not receive fresh supply
OF oxygen.
This is common form of natural death
I among fish in cold countries; but the eX-
| plorer remarks it for the following rea-
sons: Il mention this" he observes, "be-
cause such examples of 'self-dead' verte.
brate animals are found exceedingly sell
DOM They therefore deserve to be noted.
During my nine expeditions in the
| Arctic regions, where Arctic life during the
summer is so exceedingly abundant, the
| case just mentioned has been one of the
few in which l have found remains of mod
ern vertebrate animals which could be
| proved to have died natural death. Near
the hunting grounds there are often to be
seen the remains of reindeer seals, foxes
or birds that have died from gunshot
| wounds, but no 'self-dead polar bear,
seal, walrus, white whale, fox lemming
or other vertebrate. The polar bear and
the reindeer are found there in hundreds,
the seal, walrus and white whale in
thousands, and birds in Millions These
birds must die natural death in untold
numbers. What becomes of their bodies?"
| OF this We have at present no idea; and
| yet we have here a problem of immense
| Importance for the answering of a large
| number of questions concerning the forma-
| ton of fossil bearing strata. 1t is strange
in any case that on Spitzbergen it is easier
| to find the Vertebra of a gigantic lizard of
or birds which has met a natural death.
This disappearance of the dead, so re-
markable in itself, must, we think, be
left ont of account in the endeavor to
ascertain the cause of decease. These
must be sought not by the coroner's in
quest. when TOO often there is no body
which the jury can view, but by argument
from the known causes of death among
domestic animals and the numerous, If
scattered. records, records of mortality
among wild ones, notes of which have or
ten been carefully preserved, and may be
found scattered over the history of the last
ten centuries. Most of these are the rec
ords of epidemics, but these and similar
diseases must be held to be at work from
years end 10 years end, even when not
so violent rs to cause remark: while con-
currently there is among animals a large
class of ailments causing natural death
exactly analogous to those leading to HUI
man mortality.
/ Among these normal, none-epidemic
causes OF death many must be common
both 10 wild and TO domestic species
"Distemper" among dogs and cats prob
ably extends also to foxes, wolves and the
wild felidae. It's course is often exactly,
like that of a wasting low fever, and ami
mails die from ii in exactly the same way
as human patient suffering from malaria
or bilious fever, for the symptoms are
4 not always the same. "Chill' kills dogs
often by jaundice and horses and COWS
mainly by causing internal Inflammation.
Death is then rapid and painful, and takes
place before cancellation of any kind is
visible in the animal Most domesticated
animals even cage birds, are liable TO this
cause of death, but we may assume that
among wild animals whose normal course
of life does not expose them TO over-exer-
| ton or draughts It is less common. Among
i ~ - L.
are obliged to take violent exertion, heart
disease often causes sudden death. Aged
horses sometimes drop down dead when
being gently ridden from the same cause
| Most very old horses which have been
turned out to grass to end their days in
peace suffer In the end from forms of in
| digestion, which cause them to become so