220 CHILDHOOD OF ANIMALS 



although they do not forcibly resent such treatment when they 

 are very young, cease to submit to it as they grow older. If such 

 animals were treated with a due respect for their natural disposi- 

 tions, they might continue to be quite tame, although I do not 

 think that they have sufficient intelligence or memory to show much 

 difference in their response to their owners and to strangers. I 

 have seen, however, an old and fully grown capybara, the largest 

 of living rodents, which had been reared on a private estate, and 

 which knew its owner well and liked coming to be scratched and 

 fed with carrots or sugar, and I have been told of adult tame beavers 

 and agoutis. 



Young insectivores such as moles, hedgehogs and shrews will 

 attach themselves in a rather stupid mechanical way to persons 

 who adopt them, and certainly like nestling in a warm hand, and 

 understand being fed, but I do not know of any of them remaining 

 really tame when they grow up. A hedgehog kept in a garden 

 will become accustomed to the presence of human beings and will 

 usually come to be fed, but even such animals stray if they are 

 given the opportunity. I have been unable to find anything about 

 the qualities of young edentates. Sloths in captivity are apathetic 

 and indifferent rather than tame. The great anteater is rather 

 more intelligent and certainly distinguishes between strangers and 

 those to whom it is accustomed, but armadillos are the most friendly 

 of all the edentates that I have seen alive, and I should guess that 

 they would make affectionate and fairly intelligent pets. 



All the marsupial animals have a relatively low intelligence, and 

 few of them in captivity do more than learn not to be afraid of 

 visitors and keepers and to come to the bars to be fed. By the 

 time they leave the mother's pouch permanently, they have the 

 mental characters of the adult, and I do not know of any case where 

 a very young marsupial has been removed from its mother and 

 been brought up by hand. The larger kangaroos occasionally 

 allow themselves to be handled, and some of the small nocturnal 

 opossums and phalangers submit to such treatment in a sleepy, 

 indifferent fashion. The thylacine, or striped marsupial wolf, 

 and the Tasmanian devil become gradually accustomed to their 

 keepers, but to a very much smaller extent than in the case of the 

 true carnivores. Their intelligence is very low, and they remain 

 shy, suspicious and ready to bite. 



Young animals bom in captivity are no more easy to tame than 

 those which have been taken from the mother in her native haunts. 



