Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1906-03-15
TANNING ANIMALS.

|
GUS art as many persons suppose it Il
be, said G. Alden Loring. who ha
served as field naturalist for th'
United States Biological Survey anc
the Smithsonian Institution. "Most
animals respond quickly to kind treat
ment.
"Onte assured of our friendlipess
they seek our company, build their
homes near ours and visit our grounds
| in search of food. Sometimes they
become 80 con6diDg that they enter
| our houses, take food from our fingers
and even perch oD our hands.
"But if we hunt them and do all
we can to destroy them their attitude
toward us is just the reverse. They
take to the open fields and forests and
are ever on the alert for danger.
Probably there are no better il
lustrations of the ability of some ami
mails to take care of themselves once
they understand that we are their en-
emies than the cases of the red fox,
woodchuck and common crow. Here
we have three creatures that have
been prosecuted from the time when
the country was first settled, yet with
in the last decade, despite the won.
derful improvements in firearms, traps,
etc., their numbers have not bee Ime
smaller in the least, while others OF
greater strength but weaker minds
have been e1terminated.
What has been the result OF the
warfare against these animals 1t has
served to make them specialists in the
art of seli-preservation and today
Br'er Fox and jim Grow have the
reputation Of being two of the smart
est creatures living.
ut might surprise many ofthe Cen
tral Park visitors to know that the
little bunuies that take nuts from
their hands and perch on their shoul-
ders while eating them are 80 fearful
of man in many other parts of the
country that without the utmost
stealth and caution the hunter cannot
approach within shooting distance.
"Why are the squirrels 80 .ame in
Central Park and so shy in other
places2 Simply because they are fed
In one place and hunted in others.
If the Central Park squirrels were
hunted they, too, would become wild
in remarkably short time.
ITO certain extent the same is
true with all animals-we make them
our friends or our enemies. That an
imals are quick to discover and take
advantage Of closed season has been
proved by the deer in the Adiron-
dacks and the Western States. All
the guides and mountaineers who live
in deer country must protect their
gardens with wire netting, else the
deer would soon ruin them.
"As soon as the hunting season
opens and several shots have been
fred few deer are aeen near houses,
and from that time until the season
closes they are as shy as hawks.
ITO appreciate fully what can be
accomplished by protecting animals
we have only to turn to the Yellow.
stone National Park and compare the
habits of the animals living there
with the habits of their kin who live
in the country just beyond the boun.
| daries of the park. Most striking Of
all is the change that has occurred in
the habits of the bears that have be.
come Uncle Sans wards.
"The sportsman who has hunted
bears in the Jackson's Hole country,
just outside the park. knows that
| Bruin is one of the most difficult oI
all large games to approach. Both
his sight and his hearing are defect.
i've, but if you wish to get within
rife ahot of him you must take ad
| vantage of the wind, else he vii
surely get scent Of you and youl
chances of seeing him again that day
unless you have a pack of good beai
dogp, are small, indeed.
"But in the Yellowstone Park
where hunting has not been permittec
for years. the bears have lost all fea
of man. They have become 50 tam
that it is one Of the sights of heparl
to visit the garbage dumps near tn
hotels and watch the bears feeding il
the evening.
] "some Of the huge, good-naturs'