The Kemper herald. (Scooba, Miss.) 1875-1908, 1906-05-17
ANIMAL TANNING SECRET
BY NO MEANS THE MYSTERIOUS
ART SOME PEOPLE THINK.

ART SOME PEOPLE THINK.
Wild Beasts and Birds Quick to Dis.
v When the Law Protects
'Them.-Ability Of Animals to Take
Care Of Themselves When They're
Hunted by Man.
"The tanning Of animals, and es-
pecially our common birds and NAM
mails, is by no means such a mysteri-
Gus art as many persons suppose 1t
TO be-" said G.. Alden Loring, who has
served as field naturalist for the
United States Biological Survey and
the Smithsonian Institution. "Most
animals respond quickly to kind treat
ment.
"Once assured of u friendliness
they seek our company. build their
homes near ours and visit our
grounds In search Of food. Sometimes
they become SO confiding that thee
enter our houses, take food from our
fingers and even perch on u hands.
but If we hunt them and do all we
can to destroy them their attitude to-
ward us is just the reverse. They
take to the open fields and forests
and are yer on the alert for danger.
Probably there are no better illus
STATIONS of the ability of some ami
mails to take care of themselves once
they understand that we are their
enemies 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
within the last decade, despite the
wonderful improvements in firearms,
traps, ETC., their numbers have not
become smaller in the least, while
others of greater strength but weak
er minds have been exterminated.
What has been the result of the
warfare against these animals? 1t
has served to make them specialists
in the art of self-preservation, and to-
day Br'er Fox and Jim Crow have
the reputation of being two Of the
smartest creatures living.
at might surprise many of the
Central Park visitors to know that
the little Dummies that take nuts
from their hands and perch on their
shoulders while eating them are so
fearful of man in many other parts
of the country that without the ut
most stealth and caution the hunter
cannot approach within shooting dis
lance.
why are the squirrels SO tame in
Central Park, and so shy in other
places? 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 a remarkably short time.
ITO a certain extent the same is
true with all animals-we make them
u friends or our enemies. That
animals are quick to discover and
AXE advantage of a closed season has
oeen proved by the deer in the
Adirondacks and the Western States.
All the guides and mountaineers who
i've in a deer country must protect
heir gardens with wire netting, else
the deer would o ruin them.
"As soon as the hunting season
opens and several shots have been
fred few deer are seer near houses,
and from that time until the season
closes thy are as shy as hawks.
TO 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-
1aries of the park. Most striking of
Ill is the change that has occurred
n the habits of the bears that have
become 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 of
all large game to approach. Both his
sight and his hearing are defective,
but if you wish to get within rife
shot of him you mush take advantage
of the wind, else he will surely get
scent of you and your chances of see
ing him again that day, unless you
have a pack of good bear dogs, is
small indeed.
But in the Yellowstone Park,
where hunting has not been permit
ted for years, the bears have lost all
fear of man. They have become so
tame that it is one of the sights of
the park to visit the garbage dumps
near the hotels and watch the bears
feeding in the evening.
Some of the huge good natured
brutes get impatient as the wagons
carrying the refuse barrels approach,
and without waiting for the drivers
to dump the barrels climb into the
back of a cart and in their efforts to
appease theier hunger tip owe the
barrels, with results that do not add
to the dignity of their appearance.
"Yet the park bears do not at
.ack man-newspaper stories to the
contrary Notwithstanding. The worst
sin charged against them is the oc-
casional mixing up of a campers out
it during his absence.
"Other animals in the park are al
most equally tame. Mountain sheen