12 a hand-book of the management of animals 



Treatment in Health. 



Housing. — In keeping these animals it is necessary to bear in 

 mind that hanumans are essentially gregarious animals, and that 

 unless a large number of them are kept together they pine away and 

 die. But to crowd twenty or thirty of them into a comparatively small 

 cage would be equally wrong. Apart from any question of cruelty, it 

 is detrimental to their health to deprive them altogether of the oppor- 

 tunity of indulging the habit of bounding and leaping which they 

 possess in an astonishing degree in a state of freedom. To afford the 

 necessary facilities, a large house is required, of the size and plan of 

 the Gubbay or Dumraon House (see page 6), devoted entirely to the 

 hanumans. In a house 50 feet long by 30 feet broad and of propor- 

 tionate height, with means for isolating the refractory and the weak, 

 30 to 40 hanumans could with comfort be kept. As they, especially 

 the older males, are strong and powerful animals, and are wont 

 to jump against the bars of the cage and shake them with consi- 

 derable violence, these need to be very firm. Stout branches of trees 

 should be let into the floor and the usual perches and swings provided. 

 It has not been possible in this garden to assign an entire house, as 

 suggested above, to these monkeys. A small number of them have 

 been lodged in one or other of the cages of the Grubbay or Dumraon 

 House. The tradition that male and female hanumans live in separate 

 troops throughout the greater part of the year is apparently incorrect ; 

 it is nevertheless necessary that there should be a preponderance of 

 females to males, so that in a collection of 30 hanumans there would be 

 no need for more than half a dozen males. In selecting hanumans to 

 replenish stock preference should be given to young and adolescent 

 animals, as they are likely to do better than the older ones, which are 

 generally ill-tempered. 



Animals of uncertain and vicious temper, especially monkeys, 

 which have become savage from various causes, as family pets, are 

 often sent to this garden as a comfortable and convenient home. 

 Such creatures, whether hanumans or other monkeys, should never be 

 placed with those already in captivity : if this is done, there will be 

 no end of fighting and biting. These should either be kept in spare 

 cages of one of the monkey-houses, when available, or in one of the 

 movable cages, and if practicable in sight of the tamer specimens. 



Food. — With the exception of eggs, grasshoppers or any other 

 kind of animal food, the same diet that has been indicated as suitable 

 for an orang or a hoolock will do for a hanuman, provided a sufficient 

 quantity of leaves is given every day. Almost all the members of this 

 genus consume leaves largely in a wild state, and unless this essential 

 element of their natural diet is regularly supplied them in captivity, 

 no amount of good feeding is of any avail. They strip off the pinnate 

 leaves of the sajina (Murenga pteregosperma) with great dexterity. 

 The following are some of the trees and creepers the leaves of which 

 experience has shown to be best suited to, and most liked by, these 

 animals: — sajina (Murenga pteregosperma) , pipui (Ficus religiosa), bair 

 (Ziziphus jujuba), amra (Spoadias mangifera), tamarind (Tamar Indus 

 indica), telakucha (Momordica monad elphea), bael (JEgle marmelos). 



