The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals: A Book of Personal ObservationsHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
Science
The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals: A Book of Personal Observations
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
Animal behavior
In a short time the Terror had whipped and thoroughly cowed Bruno
and Jappie. Next he tackled Ben; but Ben's great bulk was too much
for him. Finally he devoted a lot of time to bullying and reviling
_through the bars_ a big but good-natured cinnamon bear,
named Bob, who lived in the next den. In all his life up to that
time, Bob had had only one fight. Tommy's treatment of Bob was so
irritating to everybody that it was much remarked upon; and
presently we learned how Bob felt about it.
One morning while doing the cage work, the keeper walked through
the partition gate from Bob's den into Tommy's. He slammed the
iron gate behind him, as usual, but this time the latch did not catch
as usual. In a moment Bob became aware of this unstable condition.
Very innocently he sauntered up to the gate, pushed it open, and
walked through into the next den. The keeper was then twenty feet
away, but a warning cry from without set him in motion to stop
the intruder.
[Illustration
with caption: ALASKAN BROWN BEAR "IVAN" BEGGING FOR FOOD He
invented the very expressive sign language that he employs.]
[Illustration with caption: THE MYSTERY OF DEATH. Himalayan bear
jealously guarding the body of a dead cage-mate.]
Having no club to face, Bob quietly ignored the keeper's broom.
Paying not the slightest attention to the three inoffensive
bears, Bob fixed his gaze on the Terror, at the far end of the
den, then made straight for him. Tommy made a feeble attempt at
defense, but Bob seized him by the back, bit him, and savagely
shook him as a terrier shakes a rat. The Terror yelled lustily
"Murder! Murder! Help!" but none of the other bears made a move
for his defense. Bob was there to give Tommy the punishment that
was due him for his general meanness and his insulting behavior.
The horrified keeper secured his pike-pole, with a stout spike set
in the end for defense, and drove the spike into Bob's shoulder.
Bob went right on killing the Terror. Again the keeper drove in
his goad, and blood flowed freely; but Bob paid not the slightest
attention to this severe punishment.
Then the keeper began to beat the cinnamon over the nose; and that
made him yield. He gave the Terror a parting shake, let him go,
and with a bloody shoulder deliberately walked out of that den and
into his own. The punishment of the Terror went to the full limit,
and we think all those bears approved it. In a few hours he died
of his injuries.
Case 8. The Grizzly Bear and the String. One of the best
illustrations I know of the keenness and originality of a wild
bear's mind and senses, is found in Mr. W. H. Wright's account of
the grizzly bear he did not catch with an elk bait and two set
guns, in the Bitter Root Mountains. This story is related in
Chapter VI.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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