ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



247 



MXK-liA.\l)Kl) AKMADn.l.i 



captivity is like the seizure of a human Ijeing with 

 an acute malady. There is a crisis, or turning- 

 point, when the constitution rallies from the shock 

 and enervation, or life ebbs away. Many freshly 

 captured animals that are known to the animal- 

 man as "poor feeders" undergo just such a con- 

 dition. The creature is stupefied by the change of 

 life, its energies are suspended, and it has no desire 

 for food, nor the power to digest it. 



It was in such a condition as this that our ant- 

 eater arrived. Everything was done to stimulate 

 its dormant energies. The first of these measures 

 was a bath in tepid water, when it was placed in a 

 warm, dry cage and se\eral 

 hours later offered food in 

 the shape of a beaten raw egg. 

 This it partially consumed, 

 and retiring to the darkest 

 corner of the cage curled itself 

 up to sleep. Its persistence 

 in hiding and sleeping was 

 not to our liking. Continued 

 sluggishness on the part of an\ 

 animal either indicates <ir 

 brings about indisposition ami 

 loss of appetite. 



To liven up the specimen, it 

 was taken out and turned 

 loose in a grove near the Pri- 

 mates' House, where the 

 ground was honeycombed in 

 small areas by the runways of 

 black ants. The move was a 



hajipy one, lor the animal im- 

 mediately assumed such a 

 spirit of vivacity that it ap- 

 peared as if hypodermically 

 injected with some [)owerful 

 excitant. It at once employed 

 its long, front claws to root 

 into the ant burrows, starting 

 a swarm of the angry creatures 

 to the surface. When the 

 ant-eater's snout was i)ressed 

 lightly against the mouth of a 

 burrow, the movements of the 

 throat muscles demonstrated 

 that the long tongue was in 

 vigorous action. This attitude 

 was continued until the mouth 

 appeared to be full of ants, 

 when there was a crude at- 

 tempt at mastication, and the 

 scraping of a few fiercely biting !insects from the 

 snout with the feet. After half a dozen such 

 mouthfuls the animal seemed satisfied, and wan- 

 dered about in casual fashion, returning for more 

 ants after an hour or so. 



The ant-eater weathered the crisis of a newly 

 arrived animal, and is now in flourishing condition. 

 It has been on e.xhibition for five months' time. 

 In the morning it eats a mi.xture of eggs beaten in 

 milk and mixed with scraped meat, after which it 

 is placed in an out-door cage and remains there dur- 

 ing the day, on bare earth, searching for ants. At 

 night it is brought in again, and given another meal 



hit. 11 l-HANDKIi AkMAlilLH 



