The Savannah morning news., 1904-10-16
Novel Animal Catching.

one of the big American dealers in
wild animals has just sent a collector
70 Africa to try to catch a few young
oorillas. This collector who has been
in the wild beast catching line since
he was a boy, long before the Civil
War, explained to the writer the novel
way in which he hoped to catch the
big man-monkey.
I'm not going to try to trap them
at first" said he. "a young gorilla.
when trapped, is often killed or badly
wounded by the old gorillas in their
efforts to drag it out Besides that, it
isn't a bit easy to get the animals
that way. They are as clever as the
ordinary African savage, at least as
far as guarding their safety is con-
cerned, and they fight shy Of anything
suspicious. I've tried to trap gorillas on
the Gaboon river before this, and 1
had to sit down and wait for weeks
before a single one entered our con-
trivance.
Besides that, trapping is unsatis-
factory, because you can't tell Just
what kind of gorilla will enter the
trap. 1t is more likely than not to be
q fully grown beast. The young gorillas
rarely venture far from their mothers
and the chances are that, if they enter
trap, the mother will be caught with
them In that case both are sure to
die for a full-grown gorilla will not
bear captivity. If the adult animal
doesn't beat his brains out against the
cage, he will sulk and starve himself.
If a mother gorilla thus pines away,
her young will die with her, refusing
food as she does.
My way is going to be the same
that 1 have used with success in Bor-
neo in hunting the big chimpanzees.
am going to let my native beaters cir
Gle around till them hem a family of
gorillas in a human ring. That may
take months, or perhaps, If we have
luck, it will be done within a few
weeks after the hunting begins. Day
by day we will close in the ring till we
have the animals penned in a small
place. Then my white assistant, the
head huntsman of the natives, and
will go in. The native hunter will
carry our rifles. We two white men
will be armed only with the regula-
ton Western lasso, the same as is
used by the cowboys.
When we have made our way under
The tree where the gorillas are, the
native huntsman will drive them down
toward the ground by firing into
the branches until they descend.
Then we will single out the young
ones that we want and lasso them
and drag them in with all our might.
AS soon as we have them fast the
heaters win break out of the jungle
and drive off the adult beasts, if they
should. show fight which is not like
w no i1itxy &c misc
and the appearance of the savages
will brighten them off at once.
The lassoed gorillas will be drag
ged off to camp just as they are.
They won't attack the men who have
hold of the ropes as long as the men
keep on pulling. 1 have lassoed doz-
ems of angry chirnpanzees, fully grown,
and 1 never had fight with one.
Don't you see how that is? The
natural impulse Of a man or an ami
NAL when lassoed, is to pull away
from the man who is doing the tug
ging. Therefore, as long as he can
keep pulling in, the beast is likely to
keep pulling away. l have had nQr
trouble in keeping the ugly customers
at healthful distance.
Il have even lassoed a leopard and
he has remained respectfully distant
from me while I pulled at him. In
stead Of springing at me, as he would
have done had he been free. he pulled
backward with all his might. digging
his paws deep into the ground to pre-
vent me from dragging him in. Of
course that was just what I wanted.
tugged like a good one till my men
Jumped In and threw more ropes over
his head. Then, with half a dozen
men on each rope, and all ropes pull
ing in different directions, we soon
had Mr.. Leopard choked into submits
sion. I hope to have the same luck
with the gorillas"