Evening star., 1949-08-25

rites are wart- ehl' "'1e"''''
hogs and balloons.
Warthogs, which abound in the
park and can be seen by the hun
dreds each day, are a species OF
wild pig and undoubtedly the
ugliest animals ever turned out
in Natures workshop. With all
the beautiful, graceful animals
there are In the park, just why
warthogs fall in love with one
another will always battle me.
Yet they do. Not once, but a
dozen times we have seen Mama
and Papa warthog trotting along
the front Of our car, continually
casting admiring glances at one
another, and followed by half a
dozen baby warthogs, ugly little
replicas of their parents. AS they
trot along they carry their perky
little tails erect. each at the same
exact angle, and chatter to one
another in the silly-sounding
Warthog language.
Gentle As Kittens.
To me, the most beautiful ami
NAL in the park is the steinbok.
He is a baby of a fellow, standing
no more than three feet at the
shoulder, and Of a delicate chest
nut color. They make delightful
pets. being as gentle as kittens.
You rarely see q steinbok with
another steinbok. He is a favorite
food Of the leopard and cheetah,
and finds it safer to travel alone.
He Is so swift, so nimble, and so
keen of sight and hearing, that
he seldom falls prey to his enc
mics.
If you travel for a few miles
and don't spot . steinbok you can
bet your life that one Of the cat
family is near and out for kill.
There may be more balloons
somewhere in the world than there
are in Kruger Park, but don't
believe it. In our four days in the
park we must have seen 5000 OF
the fellows. The park rangers
told us they were far and away
the smartest animals in the park
the elephant has the second
u. @. with the lion third-and we
soon discovered it for ourselves.
Baboons put out sentries for
protection. Let q sentry fail III
his duty and he is either badly
mauled or killed by his mates.
We saw = sentry. an old fellow,
who was bothered by q fiirtatious
girl baboon. She danced before
him, sort Of pinched his cheek.
and tried to charm him with her
female sbaboon beauty. He stood
Iit7 as long Us he could and then
picked, her up, gave her resound-
ing spank, and tossed her into a
nearby water hole. He had .
job to. do. and had no interest
in the ladies.
The balloons love to sit in the
middle Of the roads and block
traffic. When the cars come to q
halt they Jump on top Of the cars,
lean down. and peer intently at
the strange animals ENGAGED In
side. never saw quicker action
than Jean showed in rolling up the
window when a huge baboon stuck
his head into the car and gave
her the complete once over.
Park officials plead with visit
ors not to feed the balloons, be-
cause they will soon associate
automobiles with food and gather
in such large numbers on the road
that traffic will be impossible. But
people still feed them. We saw
a motorist throw some paper
wrapped chocolates to the
balloons, and I'll be darned II they
didn't carefully examine the gifts
and then remove the paper covers,
roll them into balls. throw them
aside just. as humans do, and
proceed to eat the candy.
I was tempted to hand my type
writer to d baboon and tell him to
dash me off five or six columns
on night life in the park.
distributed BY McNauRht Syndicate. Inc.)