The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-18
ANNALS FEAR OF MAN.
1T is Not a Natural Instinct, but Re-
suits From Bitter Experience.
From the London Spectator.


Felix d'Azara 10 Mr.. Hudson, the puma,
the second largest of the big cats of South
America, neither feared man nor regard
ed human beings as its prey; but, on the
contrary sought their society," and even
protected man from the attacks of the ia
guar. Trustworthy facts which lend ad-
dluonal confirmation to this interesting
question must necessarily be slowly ac-
quired. The following anecdote, which
comes at first hand from one long resi-
dent in British Guiana, supports the belief
that the puma seeks the society of man
instead of attacking OF fearing him. When
making an expedition up one of the large
rivers in a steam launch, our friend gave
passage 10 an elderly Cornish miner, who
was anxious TO reach the gold fields Not
wishing to intrude 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-slung ham
mock is not easy, he usually fastened it
rather low and his weight brought t to
within three feet of the ground at the
bottom of the curve. One morning, being
asked how he had slept, he complained
that the frogs had made such a noise
underneath his hammock that they had
kept him awake" Some Indians of the
crew. who were folding up the hammock,
laughed a good deal when they heard this,
and being asked the reason, said, still
laughing: oh tiger sleep with old man
last night" They had found under the
hammock the marks of where a puma
had lain. The noise which had kept the
occupier Of the hammock awake was prob
ably the purring of the puma, pleased at
occupying the next berth" below man.
AS these Guiana Indians have, in addi-
ton to the unerring eye of the forest dwell
er, a special liking and capacity for tam
ing animals, it can hardly be doubted that
their conclusion was correct. Such an alb
sence of fear, and liking for human So
ciety, could only be paralleled by the be-
haVior of some domes tic cats.
Yet in the case of the puma this can only
be survival of a primitive disposition,
which has already been lost in great
measure by the same species in North
America Are we, then, TO suppose that
that absence of that fear of man SO gen
eraI among even the large carnivora was
the rule in the primitive world? If 1t was,
we shall have to account for the survival
of man in the presence of creatures which
did not fear him, and possessed Tar more
effective physical equipment Tor attack
than man possessed for defense, for we can
not suppose that the benevolent neutrality
which can safely be attributed to the puma
was exhibited by the other carnivora. Inc
titude of animals toward man IS manly
of two kinds-the notes of explorers who
have pushed into the few regions of earth
where animals were numerous, but man
had not trodden, and the results OF the
very latest experiments of to-day IN DIS
tricts where the killing of animals has
been absolutely prohibited. In other Words,
we must compare The behavior or the crea-
lures in the Arctic seas in the days OF Wii-
In hn p
we9deu to the Antarctic, with the latest
renorts from Yellowstone Park. The re-
suits show striking agreement in the de-
meanor of the beasts when first confronted
with the new creature, man. Few OF thehl
exhibited fear, so far as the RECORDS SHOW.
When Berants' crew was on It's hrst Voy-
age a polar bear, who probably hao never
seen men before, took one OF the crew. VINO
was living down, by the back of the neck,
and, after dragging MIN some way ~ ~,
the top of his head off,. Even no" the
poIar hear is the least shy OF ms race
though so constantly hunted
The general tendency of wild animals
1,ant in large reserves and never moiested
noints to the same conclusion, though IoI
ohvious reasons none of the most DANGER
ous carnivora can be maintained IN such
nIaces The fear of man IS lost py crea-
tures wild and free but unmolesteo, 50
ouiclly as TO be matter of surprise TO those
most conyersant with animals in captivity
Renorts published in the United states
newspaper dwell repeatedly on the loss Oh
The fear of man by all animals in Yellow
stone Park, where the deer Cboth Waplu
and black tailed deer come to the houses
10 be fed, and even eat the hoWers from
the window boxes. Brown bears hanS
around the hotels and come daily to eat
the refuse carted into the woods close py'
and many of the smaller rodents are ap-
soIutelv fearless In menageries and zoo
1or,ioaI Gardens the fear of man is lost
mainly by constant and daily contact, with
no mower to escape, and by the remem-
hrance that It is man who provides their
food. But here the conditions are aonor-
mai and it would be useless to draw con-
cIusions from the behavior toward man OF
animals in captivity, and apply them 10
the solution of the earlier problem of the
innate or acquired character of their rear
of human beings. 1t is, however, matter
Of general knowledge that where man is
weak and beasts strong and numerous, as
IN the country beyond the Zambesi and
Shire rivers the bo.dness of the animals
leads to serious disasters. In the present
day the only frequent reports OF attacks
of lions and leopards on men, for food
and not in self-defense or fright, come
from these districts, though the story Is
a
If. as seems probable, the animal fear Of
man was acquired, and is not natural 70
their minds, it is not very clear how the
very early tribes of men, when the larger
carnivorous animals were far more num-
orons than now, escaped destruction and
survived long enough to impress on the
animal world the sense of fear by which
man now dominates it. Regarded merely
as a conflict between one class Of animal
and another, the result should not have
been doubtful Man ought to have dis
appeared from the face of the earth, or, in
any case, to have retreated to remote
strongholds' in regions not frequented by
the beasts. That he did not do so, but
turned the tables on the better equipped
offensive creature is fair presumpdve ey-
idence that original man never was on a
level with the animals in intelligence, but
was equipped with the predominant brain
power which has put him ahead in the
race ever silce. Primitive man, literally
speaking. lived by his wits" for he could
how owed his survival nearly so well