ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



.011 



to realize, if they do not. that when they pet and 

 feed any captive animal they are liable to ruin 

 its disposition. How many of the men who 

 spend a part of their time in the Park on Sun- 

 day afternoons baiting the bull elk Stanley 

 until he charges the fence to the breaking point, 

 would dare go into the corral to feed or care for 

 him ? Not many ; but someone must render this 

 service. 



Gunda is like the majority of men and wo- 

 men. He has moods. He has his good qualities, 

 and his bad ones are not improved, either by 

 ceaseless baiting or misdirected attention from 

 people who imagine that he never gets a meal. 

 Man cannot serve two masters, nor can an ele- 

 phant. It would be an idle thought to ascribe 

 the entire responsibility for Thuman's accident 

 to outside influences, but it would remove all 

 doubt if there never had been any. E. R. S. 



TRANSPORTING WILD ANIMALS 

 By Raymond L. Ditmars 



FEW of our visitors realize the time and 

 labor consumed in moving animals from 

 one cage to another. Such operations are 

 frequent, and, in an institution such as the 

 Zoological Park, where many visitors are near 

 by. every precaution must lie taken to prevent 

 the escape of an animal. This work always de- 

 mands ingenuity, and no two operations are 

 quite alike. On an average, our work involves 

 the removal of one animal a week, and we are 

 rather proud of a record that shows a general 

 absence of escapes and casualties. 



It must be considered that to successfully 

 maintain a record of this kind there must not 

 alone be ceaseless vigilance in inspecting the 

 many cage doors and the multitude of locks 

 securing them, but operations relating to the 

 removal of heavy and dangerous animals from 

 temporary cages to permanent quarters must be 

 most carefully planned. 



Of all animals to be moved, the greatest pre- 

 caution must be exercised with the bears. These 

 animals are not only powerful, but ingenious in 

 seeking and working at weak places. A bear 

 will test every board of a temporary chute lead- 

 ing into the shifting cage. It will work at the 

 fastenings of the shifting cage; seek to force 

 its fore feet through any openings that may 

 appear large enough, and rock and endeavor to 

 upset the shifting cage. Hence it will be under- 

 stood that in moving a large bear a considerable 

 amount of planning and construction work is 

 necessary. The shifting cage must be placed 

 upon a strong platform constructed by efficient 

 carpenters ; in fact, the general arrangement in 



placing the shifting cage must be practically as 

 strong as the permanent caging for the animal. 



In moving large cats it is not necessary to 

 adopt the elaborate precautions involved in 

 shifting a bear. Lions, tigers and leopards 

 are powerfully built and vigorous animals, and 

 they become highly excited during shifting op- 

 erations, but while they may tear wildly at 

 corners or small openings, there is no ingenuity 

 displayed in their furious attacks, nor do tliey 

 seek weak points and concentrate their atten- 

 tion upon such places. Thus, in moving a big 

 cat animal, a simple, hastily built staging holds 

 the shifting cage against the door of the ani- 

 mal's quarters, the transportation cage is roped 

 in position and the animal run in. This latter 

 part of the operation may appear to those not 

 familiar with the erratic habits of captive ani- 

 mals as comparatively easy. 



It is during this very process, however, that 

 manv hours may be consumed in caging a 

 frightened or stubborn animal. The writer re- 

 members instances where it required days to 

 induce a bear to enter a shifting cage, and the 

 animal went in only after all kinds of enticing 

 bait had been placed before it. It had been 

 prodded and coaxed and forced forward by 

 heavy planks run through the bars, and then 

 was observed by a man who had been left on 

 watch to walk quietly in of its own accord. 



It is often quite as difficult to induce a newly 

 arrived animal to leave the travelling cage 

 which it has occupied since it left its native land. 

 Frequently it is impossible to force an animal 

 out of its travelling cage through the door of 

 its permanent quarters, and in such instances it 

 is necessary to remove a panel of the door of 

 the permanent cage in order to bring the travel- 

 ling box inside. Once inside, the door of the 

 travelling box is again opened. In a day or two 

 the animal decides to prowl about its new quar- 

 ters. Then an opportunity must be awaited 

 to trap it in the sleeping den. lock it inside, 

 again remove the panel of the main cage and 

 take out the travelling cage. The writer remem- 

 bers a stubborn snow leopard that arrived late 

 in the afternoon and was lashed against the open 

 door of its new home. We worked until dirk 

 endeavoring to coax the animal out of its stuffy 

 travelling cage, but it clung in such tenacious 

 fashion that our labors continued well into the 

 night. 



Many of the smaller carnivores must be cap- 

 tured in nets, as they cannot be coaxed into a 

 shifting cage. This refers to the wolves and 

 foxes, and the greater number of the inmates of 

 the Small-Mammal House. Some of these ani- 

 mals are so nervous that to capture them witli a 



