Wild Beasts and Their Ways, Reminiscences of Europe, Asia, Africa and America — Volume 1Baker, Samuel White, Sir
History
Wild Beasts and Their Ways, Reminiscences of Europe, Asia, Africa and America — Volume 1
Baker, Samuel White, Sir
Animal behavior; Hunting
The tiger of zoological gardens is a long lithe creature with little
flesh, and, from the lack of exercise, the muscles are badly developed.
Such a specimen affords a poor example of the grand animal in its native
jungles, whose muscles are almost ponderous in their development from
the continual exertion in nightly rambles over long distances, and in
mortal struggles when wrestling with its prey. A well-fed tiger is by no
means a slim figure, but on the contrary it is exceedingly bulky, broad
in the shoulders, back, and loins, with an extraordinary girth of limbs,
especially in the fore-arm and wrist. The muscles are tough and hard,
and there are two peculiar bones unattached to the skeleton frame; these
are situated in the flesh of either shoulder, apparently to afford extra
cohesion of the parts, resulting in additional strength when striking a
blow or wrestling with a heavy animal.
There is a great difference in the habits of tigers; some exist upon the
game of the jungles, others prey specially upon the flocks and herds
belonging to the villagers; the latter are generally exceedingly heavy
and fat. A few are designated "man-eaters"; these are sometimes
naturally ferocious, and having attacked a human being, they may have
devoured the body and thus have acquired a taste for human flesh; or
they may have been wounded upon more than one occasion and have learnt
to regard man as a natural enemy; but more frequently the man-eater is a
wary old tiger, or more probably a tigress, that, having haunted the
neighbourhood of villages and carried off some unfortunate woman when
gathering firewood or the wild products of the jungles, has discovered
that it is far easier to kill a native than to hunt for the scarce
jungle game; the animal therefore adopts the pursuit of man, and seldom
attempts to molest the natives' cattle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account