CH. IV 



ALLIES AND ENEMIES 73 



of this tree. In such places the protection of the plants 

 by wire netting may become necessary if other means 

 are insufficient to deal with the evil, as by setting traps 

 or by smearing the stems of trees with an offensive 

 substance. All the carnivora, whether birds or small 

 mammals, and also non-poisonous snakes which prey on 

 these rodents, should be protected wherever there is any 

 danger from their attacks. 



Deer and certain antelopes do damage to the forest, 

 not only by browsing, but also by rubbing their horns 

 against saplings. This latter injury is particularly 

 the case with deer when they are shedding their velvet. 

 There is no doubt that these animals should be kept out 

 of plantations by fences. Barbed wire is not always 

 sufficient, as small deer and antelope will hop between 

 the strands unless they are closely set together, and the 

 larger animals often charge blindly into the wires, not- 

 withstanding the wounds they obtain, until they break 

 down the obstruction. In the forests the thinning 

 down of the game may be left to sportsmen. There is 

 only too much danger that these beautiful animals may 

 be thinned out of existence. They have also many 

 enemies in the shape of carnivora, of which the most 

 destructive are the wild dogs which hunt them in packs. 



Other horned animals, such as buffaloes, gaur, 

 giraffes, especially those found in large herds, browse 

 heavily, and they also do a considerable injury to young 

 growth by trampling it down and in hardening the soil. 

 Bears eat wild fruit, but may thus help in the distribu- 

 tion of seed ; they are also very useful in eating up 

 termites. Wild pigs do a certain amount of harm by 

 eating seed and uprooting seedlings, but, on the other 

 hand, they are useful in working up the soil and pre- 

 paring it for the reception of seed. 



Elephants, both the Asian and the African, are 

 responsible for a good deal of injury to the forest. They 

 not only break boughs in order to feed on the bast and 

 leaves, or uproot bamboos to let their young feed on the 

 younger culms which come out in the centres of the 



