CARNIVORES IN CAPTIVITY 105 
too, of the intensity of feeling which prevails among wild 
animals. 
The management of carnivores which have been captured 
in the adult condition is, of course, very difficult, and it is quite 
impossible to train such animals to the extent that is now con- 
sidered quite ordinary in the case of young animals. To deny 
this is simply nonsense. Nothing more than a superficial 
polish can be imparted to animals which are grown up when 
caught. 
About fifteen years ago I obtained from Calcutta the most 
savage, as also the largest and heaviest, Bengal tiger that I 
have ever come across. I received him from the Zoological 
Gardens in Calcutta, only a few months after he had been 
captured. During his first few days in Hamburg he was ina 
furious rage; whenever I approached his cage he would fly 
to the bars and stretch his paws through in his savage 
attempts to seize me. I naturally did not relish this sort 
of thing, and kept at a respectful distance. However, I paid 
the animal a visit every day and showed him that his efforts 
to harm me were quite fruitless ; as soon as I approached him 
I made a purring noise, addressing him, as it were, in his own 
language. As time wore on the animal became quieter. To 
be sure, as soon as I appeared he still sprang angrily against 
the bars of his cage, but he no longer struck at me with his 
paws. After a week I began to take him a piece of meat 
every day, for the way to the heart lies through the stomach 
—a proverb which applies not only among the lower ani- 
mals. After four weeks I could just venture to touch the great 
beast ; I had to keep my eyes open, however, for now and 
again during these experiments he would lash out at me with 
his claws. I kept this tiger for about three months, by the 
end of which time he had realised that nobody wished to 
hurt him. When he saw me he would come quietly to the 
bars and allow me to stroke him. I had succeeded in curing 
him of his ferocity, and moreover, after he left me, he does not 
seem to have relapsed, for in the Dresden Zoological Gardens 
