Evening star., 1916-07-16
THE ELEPHANTS REAL
DISPOSITION.
By Frederic J. Haskin.

elephant. which enjoys an enviabie repu-
tat.on for Intelligence and amiability,
has been basking IN a public approval
he does not deserve. He Is really 4
dangerous and treacherous beast in
captivity, and while ne is intelligent
enough, he is prone to misapply the
brains that nature gave him.
At least, such has been the experience
of the zoo authorities. according TO
William T. Hcrnaday, director and ger
cral curator of the Bronx Zoo here.
The story of Minnie, the circus ele-
pahnt who carefully lifted the train
ers little boy to safety on her back
before she chastised the trainer who
had beaten her. is not accepted with
enthusiastic credulity by the zoo keep
ers. Such thing may be true of cir
Gus elephants. they admit, but certainly
not of those residing in a zoo. who are
never remarkably docile, and as old
age comes on develop tremendous am
bi;:,, to kill keeper.
Orly last summer. for example. it be-
; came necessary to shoot Gunda, the
large Indian elephant of the park, be-
cause he became SO unmanageable. Ac-
/ cordng to the popular version OF the
: elephant story, Gunda should have dis
liked only those who fed him bad pea
7 nuts and tobacco. and exhibited a pas
! sionate devotion for his keeper, who
, had petted him, but what Gunda really
! did was to attack everybody who at
tempted to enter the cage, and made
the process of feeding him exceedingly
dangerous. All keepers were equally
distasteful to him, so that it finally be-
came the duty of the Geological Society
to have him shot. His skeleton and
skin are now to be found in the Mu-
scum of Natural History, while his
anatomy was presented to the college
of Physicians and Surgeons for use in
research work.
Not only Is the elephant not to be
trusted, but other animals show
! a m n t.
Show Tendency to Eat aoie tend
Hand That Feeds Them. eat the
hand that feeds them For instance, in
the opinion of Mr.. Hornaday, nothing
is quite so dangerous as pet bear. and
for this reason the keepers in the Bronx
Park are requested not to take the
slightest chance with any of the ami
mails man may feed bear an apple
$50 times with perfect safety. and on
the 261st time have his hand chewed
off Such an accident occurred not
long ago when a keeper tried to pose
bear for the park photographer, the
bear attacking the keeper and de-
vouring his right hand.
While a number of accidents are to
be expected in the business of exhibit
ing wild animals, the Bronx Park has
been unusually fortunate in this re-
spect especially in the case of visit
ors. Only two disasters have occurred
to visitors within the past twenty
years, and one of these was entirely
the fault of the victim. Before po-
liceman could reach him a drunken
man placed his hand within the cage
of large polar bear, who cordially
accepted it. The second case was due to
another vicious elephant, who succeed
ed in breaking an iron knob off his
door and flinging it out among sun
day afternoon crowd of visitors, strik-
ing a small boy in the face and cut
ting him. The Bronx has very good
record for park containing many
dangerous animals and having an an
nual patronage of nearly 2,0Oo.0O0 Wis
itors
Bronx Park, while belonging to the
city of New York. is under the exclu-
sive direction of the New York Zoolog-
ical Society. The city appropriates
5000. annually for the maintenance
of the grounds. animals and buildings.
and the rest of the money required is
obtained from the gate receipts. Two
days each week admittance charge
of % cents is made, in addition to which
the society runs two park restaurants,
a boat pavilion on the lake and sup
plies a number of riding animals for
the purpose of making money. The
original idea was to use this money
for buying new animal collections, but
the expense of maintenance and re-
pair is so great that the city appro-
priation does not begin to cover it, and
the profits of the amusement business
20 to mske up the deficit
The animal collections are usually
amplifed by the contributions of pri-