Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-08

food-getting than the bear. There is the
Canadian marten. for instance, that !
little animal which for 30 Years Ess !,
been hunted for its valuable fur Until. at /
one time, it became almost extinct. In it, |
native woods the marten spends most OF
his time in trees. When hunger drives :
him down. he descends. STICKS his nose
to the ground like hound dog AID {.
promptly begins solitary hunt Tor ne
trail of a rabbit. Having found the trail
he follows II without deviation Until the i
quarry has been run down. Whatever Il
hunts, 1t uses its nose Just as does q I
hunting dog. and there is Very little
chance for the game TO escape. Tor the
harten is quick and rs sure as the J
proverbial CREASED lightning.
A larger animal of the martcn species !
kept at the Zoo Is called the fisher. The
the burglar and sneak thief of the en-
tire animal kingdom living about Hudson
bay. which is his native haunt. He is
too lazy to catch fish for himseli-neNeT-
theless he is extremely fond of them.
Hence he gets them by continually steal
ing the bait from fishing lines. and he
can strip a hook of its minnow win
neatness and dispatch. The fisher. like
berries after nightfall. Fishermen and
trap hunters about Hudson bay have to
look sharp indeed when one of these ami
mails is in their section-for the fisher
= trap seems to delight his soul.
Out at the Zoo there are a number OF
specimens of various species OF the cat
family. all of whom are Industrious in
the pursuit of their food. The largest and
handsomest of these is the jaguar which
when wild roams through South America,
Mexico and parts of Texas. In many
ways the jaguar resembles the leopard
lit is spotted, and about the same size
from six to seven and a half feet from
i
175 pounds.
In his native wilderness the jaguar has
an especial fondness for domestic animals.
Wherever he roams. as a consequence,
he creates not only a reign Of terror. but
a reign of poverty as WELL He thinks
nothing of striking down a horse or a
COW. which he will drag off-sometimes a
mile or more-to be devoured at leisure.
He pays particular attention to every pig
pen within a days travel, and in twenty
four hours jaguar can cover many
, miles. Strangely enough, though: the
jaguar is far more careful In killing a
domestic. non-combatant pig than in kill
! ing horses and cattle-a fact due to the
! instinct handed down from his jungle
| forefathers.
For. ages back the jaguar has been
feasting. whenever occasion has arisen.
on peccaries-the wild pigs of South
America Now ii so happens tnat these pee
carries have sharp tusks and petulant tenn
pers. SO that even the kingly jaguar can
not afford to attack them without due
caution. Coming upon herd, he Will
strike down a straggler, and then leap
into a tree to escape furious rush or
his victims companions. There he re-
! mains quietly until the peccaries grow
weary of the siege and depart, when ne
! leisurely descends to his feast.
And this dread Of the peccary has come
down through the ages even to the
| the case on rare animal banquet occa-
sions. the Zoo officials have given one
live pig to devour, he has always killed
| it and then leaped aside. as If to avoid
a phantom rush born I'm his own brain.
In addition to ravaging the live stock of
1 the community. however. the jaguar still
has many other ways of securing food.
He is an expert fisherman. scooping fish
from the water with his paw or walking
through shallow water until he sees
| fish in a ripple, and then striking 1t
stunning blow. He will also find a turtle.
; dig it out of the mud and, up on the
! dig out the meat. Or it will enter the
water, and pursue, catch. kill and de-
YOUR a muskrat. In truth. the jaguar
I, is fully capable Of earning his living any
where.
A smaller animal Of the cat tribe kept
at the Zoo. and more typically American
than the jaguar, is the ocelot, or leopard
cat or, to use a still more familiar
name, the bob cats. When a wild bob cat
gets hungry he promptly begins climbing
trees after birds. Very young birds of
course hardly ever escape him-but even
full-grown birds would have no easy time
saving their lives. For it is the-h habit
of the bob cat to climb to the branch of
q tree, hide himself as best he can in
the foliage, and then wait until a bird
lights on a branch beneath him. Then
he will either spring, pounce or drop
down on it. either catching 1t before 1t
has time to fly or striking it down with
a sharp clawed and powerful paw that
rarely misses, as it rises in the first fiut-
ter of its wings.
probably have the most ingenious and
best organized methods Of procuring food.
In their native haunts they live, usually.
on fruits, insects, eggs and small birds.
Banana and orange groves attract them
as does nothing else save, perhaps,
grove of cocoanut trees. There in the
grove they spend most of their time con-
tented enough-for there they find not
only fruit, but birds and insects as well.
Always, too, they live in bande-and when
one grove to another. they march in a
sort Of disorganized single file led by
some veteran monkey, who acts as COM
mander. And once intrenched in a grove
1t is difficult indeed to make them leave
| it until they have exhausted its possibili-
ties as q feeding ground.
| All told, with the animals at the Zoo,
every one of them is eminently able to be
self-supporting. despite their having lived
so long In captivity and being cared for
| bV man.