Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1903-07-09
CLING TO THEIR CAGES.
Keeper of wild Animals Tells Some
Interesting Things About
His Charges.

about Eaid Mr..
the head keeper of the national zoo,
to a Washington Post reporter, re-
Gently, 'could spend a month or two
in charge of a large zoo such as this,
or the one in London, they would no
doubt change many of the opinions
which they have expressed with con-
fidence in the books and stories which
many of them have written"
For instance" he continued, 81
take notice that Ernest Thompson-Se-
ton says hat animals ought TO be con-
tinualiy changed and shifted about
from one paddock, cage and pasture
to another, to keep them from being
disconnected and nervous. The rhi'
noceros, he says, comes in time to
know every bolt and bar in his cage,
SO that, according to the author, the
animal ought to be shifted into new
quarters when this happens, to pre-.
vent his dying of ennui and lonesome
ness. This sounds very well and hui
name, especially when it appears in a
magazine with nice illustrations, but
| Nltl 1t tOlHtS uONh W pl uNtiNN III
afraid that Mr.. Thompson-Seton
would find that it would not pan out,
Animals are as peculiar. cranky and
uncertain as people. and it is impossi-
BILE to tell in advance how any expert
ment in the way of new quarters OF
changing about is likely to result. Let
me give you a pointer or two from
my own experience.
"!Along about 1876 | was with Bar
NUNS circus. At that time they had an
old polar Deal that had been with the
show for eight years. He lived in a
little cage about large enough for n
to turn round in, yet, for all that, he
was as fat and contented as one could
we'll desire. Well, along about the
eighth year of the creatures existence
in Barnum's show, the management de.
cided that, as he was getting old, il
would be a good plan to trade him of
for three young bears to the Hagen
back people in Hamburg, and they
did. The young bears arrived in as
good condition as you could well de.
sire. yet in four weeks time all three
had died. As for the old bear, which
had lived with the show for eight
years, he went to Hamburg, where he
was turned into a large, roomy pit
but in less than a month he. too, had
given up the ghost. The old fellow
missed his old quarters, and the shak.
ing up of loading and unloading OF
the circus, so that he simply pined
away and died of homesickness and
wishing for his old cage.
"You see. it is this way: While an
animal is like a human being, and does,
to be sure, require a change now and
then, it is more than humanlike in its
love of routine, in its grooviness, IN
might say. Animals become attached
to certain quarters, just as a country
man gets used to the farm on which
he was born and has lived all his life,
the cage in which they feel perfectly
at home it frightens. annoys, worries
and unnerves them to such an extent
that, frequently, they pine away and
>. die as a result.
"We have an object lesson in the cor.
servatism of animals nearly every
month here at the zoo. The average
person would imagine that all that
would be necessary to insure long life
and happiness to o animals would be
. simply to open the doors to their
cages and watch them spring out into
a nice. roomy yard, to spend the day
cavorting around and enjoying their
n%ew-found freedom. But this is not
what usually occurs. Some years ago
: when ] first came with the national
= ZOO, workmen had just completed the
very fine series of large outdoor cages
. for the big ~carnivores, which ran the
! length of the main buildings. The in.
ner cages of the lions, tigers, leopards,
y etc, all have doors leading out into
these yards, and a few days after I had
! been here. I opened the door of the
cage in which we kept our bigges1
!. lion, expecting he would go out ant
1 have a good time.
I "But he did nothing of the sort. Fl.
kept away from the door as though
', it were a trap, until at last one of the
u men took a scraper and prodded hin
out. Then, after he was once out he
e was afraid to return.
: "He stayed out in the yard tire,
" days, until on the fourth, when {
= heavy rainstorm set in, we were
obliged to drive him in again. Ever
!, then we had a time of it getting hin
" in. We would get him as far as tn,
door. and sometimes he would poke hi:
= head in, but just as sure as we un
p dertook to hurry him along, he would
bolt back again, as though frightened
II and afraid to venture further.
:, "Take our pair of fine leopards a
q" another example. I verify believ,
that if l were to change them into new
quarters they would die, although the,
are now in excellent condition. Whe1
IT the female leopard first came to tn
IT ZOO she did not eat anything for thre
days, and / was beginning to thin1
IL that We were going to lose her, whe1
e on the fourth day she began to ge
g used to her new quarters and to ca
II something. To-day she is perfect.
l. happy and at home in this cage.
IS "About the only animal or animal
n that will leave their cage with
e. bound are the apes and monkeys. Yor
n may rest assured that the minute tn
cage door is open. Mr.. Monk is goin!
to be up and doing, leaving the Gag
Il, without the least hesitation. and NAL
ing straight for the place where h
n can commit the most mischief"
:. Two Sides to 1t.
:, Musician-I don't suppose you hear
~ what | was playing last evening-yo