ECOLOGY 2 89 



while I was in the middle of a game. My partner called across in a peremp- 

 tory tone, "Stand perfectly still! Don't budge!" 



I obeyed, standing breathless for several seconds while the bees whizzed 

 by only a short distance above. The queen was in the center, of course, 

 and any gesture indicating danger to her might have brought the vast cloud 

 closing in around our heads. 



We have said a great deal to deflate the common romantic idea of the 

 jungle and the habits of wild beasts. But the fact remains that man-eating 

 animals do exist. When lions, tigers, and leopards acquire a taste for man, 

 they are terrible, relentless enemies. When a big cat shows a tendency to 

 attack man, he is, of course, an abnormal animal, and it is often difficult to 

 say with any degree of finality' what caused him to become abnormal. 



Many explanations have been given. A big cat, once wounded by a man, 

 may develop an inclination to attack men without further provocation. 

 By example the young may be taught to become enemies of man. Aged 

 or disabled cats that find difficulty in slaying other animals may take to at- 

 tacking human beings. Cats that have tasted human flesh seem more dan- 

 gerous than those that have not. Many are the theories and difficult are the 

 proofs. Case histories of wild animals, it stands to reason, are difficult to 

 procure. 



A distinction should be made between animals in the jungle and animals 

 that wander afield near human habitations. When one reads that 3000 peo- 

 ple lost their lives to wild animals in India during a single year and that 

 1600 of these were tiger casualties, there seem to be grounds for the notion 

 that the jungle is as dangerous as the romancers make out. Actually the 

 figures prove no such thing. Few of the casualties occurred in the jungle. 

 The miscreant beasts were prowling near villages, many doubtless bent 

 on stealing domestic animals. Their encounters with man certainly altered 

 their natures. It is impossible to say how many of the attacks were un- 

 provoked. 



Selous, the most famous of big game hunters, who was killed in the Great 

 War, said, "Any man who invites the charge of a lion is an idiot." 



Tigers have a better opportunity than lions for declining further ac- 

 quaintance \\ith man. Whereas a green hunter, starting off in real lion 

 country with the proper guidance, feels reasonably sure that his chances 

 are good to get a lion, the tiger hunter has no such assurance. He may, as 

 a matter of fact, undertake many shooting trips and never see a single 

 tiger. Bigger and stronger than the lion on the average, the tiger is also 

 more elusive. He is never seen in large numbers. His habitat is dense jungle 

 and high grass. All in all, man and tiger meet less frequently than man and 

 lion. 



The density and height of vegetation in the Asiatic tiger country defies 

 a hunter's vision. If he is on foot, views of the tiger are momentary and re- 



