88 a hand-book of the management of animals 



Length of life in captivity. 



Indian Ratels are hardy animals. A specimen obtained in 1876 

 lived till 1886, in which year it was sent away in exchange. 



Treatment in health. 



Housing. — As the animal is much addicted to destroying materials, 

 it should be provided with a strong cage. One of them has been known 

 to break through the stout wire netting with which some of the cages 

 of the Kuch Behar House are built. It should not be placed in a 

 conspicuous part of a zoological garden, owing to the highly offensive 

 smell attaching to it. It is, moreover, a dirty animal. The specimen 

 that lived so long in the garden was kept in a circular cage about 8 feet 

 in diameter and 6 feet high. There was a sleeping- box placed on the top 

 and a stout branch of a tree fixed in the centre. Besides drinking-water 

 in a small iron vessel, there was a heavy stone trough full of water 

 which it often used as a bath. 



Food. — Its usual food consisted of boiled beef and some bread, but 

 it ate almost anything; fish, rats, crabs, frogs, eggs, entrails of chickens 

 were always acceptable to it ; it also relished boiled rice, milk and 

 plantains. 



Transport. — Care should be taken to provide an iron cage, as it bites 

 through wood in a short time. 



Treatment in sickness. 



The animal of which mention has been made was observed to 

 suffer from diarrhoea brought on by indigestion. The usual remedy in 

 such cases was to starve it. 



Observations on the habits of an Indian Ratel. 



Although nocturnal in its habits in a wild state, it has been 

 observed to be wideawake daring the day in captivity. ^ The specimens 

 that lived in this garden were seldom foundto be inactive : they would 

 either pace their cage or would be occupied in scratching or digging up 

 something. Though very active, they are heavy in their walk. From 

 the observations taken of these animals, they do not appear to be 

 altogether untameable. One of them had a, special fancy for un- 

 fastening a particular iron bar as often as it was fixed in its proper 

 place. It cleverly managed this by its sharp hooklike claws, and 

 repeated the act if, instead of the iron bar, a walking-stick or anything 

 else was substituted in the same place. 



(96) THE HOG-BADGEB. 

 (ARCTONYX COLLARIS— F. Cm.) 



Tlmdi—Bhalu-suar or Balu-sur. 



Description.— Stout in form, with short limbs and long truncated 



snout, resembling that of a pig. Ears short. The prevailing colour 



of the body and limbs is grey, but it varies considerably in individual 



specimens, and also, it appears, according to age and length of life in 



