Jan. 14, l96S-t 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
29 
Animal Surgery, — IL 
How They Doctor the Animals at the Bronx Zoo. 
{Concluded from page 9 ) 
Prompt surgery has saved the park the price of .many 
a costly animal. Big Mose, the thirteen-foot alligator, 
has come under the surgeon's knife twice. He. ; was 
first successfully operated on for the removal of two 
large tumors from the forefeet, after a struggle lastmg 
almost an hour between the saurian and eight tnen. 
Even after Big Mose was strapped and roped uiitil it 
seemed impossible for him tO' move, he would give a 
twist, and snap would go the ropes, showing that the 
enormous strength accredited to him was not a myth. _ 
The alligator had for a long time been troubled with 
two tumors as big as apples, which grew one on 
each of his forefeet. One day he grew enraged at a 
smaller alligator that accidentally trod on one of the 
sore spots and killed it. Then it was decided that the 
tumors would have to come off, and preparations were 
begun to capture Mose. He was lying half in and 
half out of the water in the alligator tank at the east 
end of the reptile house when the water was let out. 
This seemed to surprise him. He lashed his tail around 
and made a noise with his mouth that sounded like 
the blowing off of a safety valve on a steam engine. ^ 
The first step was to slip a big bag, or gunnysack, 
over the reptile's head. The bag was put on a long 
pole and Curator Ditmars waited for a favorable op- 
portunity to drop it over the alligator's head. This 
soon came, and the bag was securely tied with ropes. 
So far everything had been easy and Big Mose had 
been docile enough. When the attendants attempted to 
draw a noose over his tail the trouble began. Big 
Mose gave his tail a gentle flip and the eight attendants, 
who had hold of the rope, fell over one another._ Then 
the big alligator grew angry. He twisted and jumped 
and turned around the tank until the eight attendants 
were nearly panic-stricken. Then Director of the 
Park, William T. Hornaday, who up to this time had 
been a looker on, jumped down into the tank and 
grabbed the rope attached to Mose's tail. But the alli- 
gator-was no respecter of persons. He treated the 
director in exactly the same way, and very soon Mr. 
Hornaday found himself on his hands and knees in the 
bottom of the tank. 
A platform was then brought in and placed on the 
floor of the tank. The eight men stood at one end 
while Mr. Ditmars stood at the other end of the tank 
on the outside and prodded the alligator with a pick. 
Then Big Mose made a mistake. He pushed himself 
along, climbed on the platform and lay there, just where 
they wanted him to go. 
The attendants quickly slung ropes around him, and 
in a few moments had the alligator, as they thought, 
hard and fast. But he was not to be captured so easily. 
He strained and struggled until he snapped the ropes 
that bound him as if they had been threads, but he still 
remained on the platform. Other and stronger ropes 
were sent for and at last, after nearly an hour's fight, 
the immense saurian was lashed securely. Then the 
platform and the alligator were lifted up and placed 
crosswise on. two boxes, so that Dr. Miller, who was 
to perform the operation, would have plenty of room. 
This was no easy matter, as the platform and the alli- 
gator together weighed nearly 800 pounds. 
It was found necessary to chloroform Big Mose, as 
he kept moving his feet and prevented Dr. Miller from 
injecting cocaine into them. He took three ounces of 
chloroform before he succumbed. The tumors were 
then removed and orders given to loosen the _ ropes 
which bound the alligator to the platform. This was 
almost as risky as the tying had been. _ When the bag 
as removed from Big Mose's head it was seen that 
e had come out of his stupor, and his eyes gleamed 
■.vickedly. 
When the last rope was removed Big Mose. stood 
right up on his feet, a very unusual thing for an alli- 
gator to do, and shook himself as a dog would do 
after, taking a swim. Then he walked off the platform 
:.ad lay down at one end of the tank, perfectly quiet;; 
Everybody heaved a sigh of relief when it was seen 
that Big Mose had no desire to cause any more trouble. 
he tank was quickly cleaned and the platform lifted 
out. Then the water was let in, and in a few moments 
Big Mose was swimming about as if nothing had ever 
occurred to disturb his peace and quiet. 
The last operation was performed ond carried out 
not with any idea to Mose's comfort, but for the sake 
of saving the lives of the other 'gators, he having in a 
vicious moment snapped in twain one of his smaller com- 
panions. He had a most formidable array of teeth, over 
two inches long and an inch thick at the base. Direc- 
tor Hornaday and Curator Ditmars devised a plan for 
shearing the Zoo Samson of some of his strength. 
After considerable labor the keepers again got him 
subdued, and when he opened his mouth in a last des- 
airing bellow they thrust a stick into it wrapped in 
towels. This propped his mouth open. Dr. Miller and 
three assistants then sawed the tops off Mose's sharpest 
teeth. It took him about half an hour to finish the job 
and to polish up the remaining portion of the teeth. 
Each of the four operators wears the crown of one of 
Close's teeth as a watch charm. 
Director Hornaday says that the monkeys are sub- 
ject to about all the ailments that human flesh is heir 
to, and when ill have to be cared for like so many 
children. When Rajah, the one time king of the 
monkey house, went through his last illness he was at- 
: s ided day and night by doctors and keepers. His 
constitution was frail; he was of precocious turn, and 
pe died in spite of the best nursing a monkey ever had. 
To the last he looked his thanks, and just before his 
death he shook hands with the curator, the keepers 
and the doctors. 
"If anybody could have pulled me through, gentle- 
men, you would have done it," he seemed to say with 
fine courtesy. 
A short time ago, Sally, one of the ring-tailed mon- 
keys of considerably more than average intelligence, got 
into a fight with another monkey and broke her left 
arm. Sally set up a shriek immediately and all the 
other monkeys began to whimper. Something dread- 
ful had happened, they knew very well. Sally's arm 
hung limpj and Sally herself, all of a heap, was al- 
ternatelv shivering and crying. Curator Ditmars sent 
a hurry' call for Dr. Miller, but found that it would be 
some time before he could reach the park. Sally got 
a big injection of morphine to keep her quiet, and when 
the doctor came, a few whiffs of chloroform deadened 
the monkey's senses completely. Her arm and shoulder 
were nicely set and done up in a plaster east. Sally 
came to presently and nibbled off the plaster, and this 
operation she repeated twice again. Then a big wooden 
collar was fitted around her neck, so that she could not 
reach her arm. Sally seemed amused. 
"Well, you've got me," she seemed to say, and then 
she had a lot of fun whirling the collar round and 
round. Her broken arm healed beautifully. 
With all the care .bestowed upon them, the monkeys 
have . croup and pneumonia and consumption occa- 
sionally. For these ailments they have their noses and 
chests rubbed with oil, and are given quinine, hot 
drinks and extra blankets to roll up in. If a monkey 
seems puny, he gets dainties to eat, too, such as pud- 
dings and rice and jelly and hot milk. _ The Zoo 
monkeys are not averse to whiskey,_ and it is a stand- 
ard remedy for them. On one occasion a sudden storm 
came up and drenched about thirty of them in their 
outdoor cages. Curator Ditmars says that he realized 
that unless something was done, about thirty monkeys 
would be down with pneumonia the next day. He gave 
them liberal, drinks of whiskey, and in a few moments 
they were all in a most hilarious state. Their legs 
refused to walk straight. Their arms flew around in 
strange curves, and when they undertook to swing they 
simply couldn't do it. 
The monkeys looked distrustfully at themselves and 
then at the curator. They seemed to say: "By jove! 
Ditmars, can't you stop turning things round?" The 
orgy lasted about half an hour, when all thirty fell 
sound asleep. Next morning they awoke, none the 
worse for the experience. 
One big elk at the Zoo knows as much about chloro- 
form as the most experienced invalid ever learns. He 
got a long cut across his leg and over the knee-joint. 
It refused to . heal promptly, and the doctor decided to 
drain and pack the wound. 
Every day half a dozen men caught the big elk and 
held him while the doctor put a sponge saturated with 
chloroform under his nose. Three or four whiffs sent 
the elk to dreamland, while the doctor treated the 
wound. The elk eventually got well, and walks about 
now without the suspicion of a game leg. 
Director Hornaday cut the hoofs of the aoudad, the 
big Barbary mountain sheep, not long ago. The animal 
was in danger of getting split hoofs and diseased feet. 
The big fellow- routed six men and inflicted terrible 
damage on the trousers of his keeper with his stout 
horns before he was finally lassoed. He was dragged 
up alongside a wire :fence> and while the director pro- 
ceeded to pare his hoofs he kept up a bellowing that 
waked the echoes. 
The sun bears and the honey bears have had treat- 
ment for ingrowing nails. This consists in tying them 
down, injecting cocaine into the "foot pad, drawing out 
the nails and cutting them off. 
The bird colony is easily treated, and comes in for 
a good deal of attention. One of the commonest ail-, 
ments is "gapes," a disease in which the feathered 
patient yawns incessantly. This is caused by a small 
worm, which lodges in the throat, and is readily re- 
moved by a pair of tweezers wielded by the doctor. 
That jealousy is a strong elefnent in the psychological 
make-up of the wild beast was apparently -shown re- 
cently when Lopez, a. jaguar, killed Bella, another 
jaguar. As the keepers tell it, it was because Bella had 
paid more attention to another of his kind there con- 
fined in a cage, and Lopez had watched her casting 
secret glances from her big eyes toward Dan, who 
had an adjoining apartment. But the keepers, like 
some parents, wanted to make a match without being 
sure of reciprocated love, and they decided to place 
Lopez and Bella together, with the result that the 
moment the door between the two cages was opened, 
Lopez sprang at her, and after his long, sharp teeth 
had loosened in her throat, Bella had paid the penalty 
for her coquetry. She just groaned a few times and 
died. , 
Lopez was a playful animal, almost as playful as a 
house cat, prior to Bella's debut. He was captured in 
Paraguay and sent to the Zoo by William Miels Butler, 
Secretary of the Paraguay Development Company. He 
was, in fact, on such friendly terms with his keepers 
that he wanted to shake hands nearly all the time, but 
found few who cared to extend this mark of cordiality 
to him. 
John Wesley Gaines, of Tennessee, shook his luxuriant 
iron-gray locks at the supercilious majority to-day when 
the question of giving over the Pension Office for the 
inaugural ball was up, and said, with great declamatory 
effect: "Gentlemen, freemen, patriots, let us unhorse the 
dogs of war 1" — New York World. 
The Passing of the Buffalo, 
San Carlos, Arizona, Dec. 25.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The "Tragedy of the PJains" and other articles 
on the disappearance of the buffalo appearing recently in 
Forest and Stream, have, as you may conceive, inter- 
ested me much. 
I would like to contribute some experiences of my own 
in this line; not that it will solve the question as to what 
became of the buffalo, for we all know where they went, 
but to add, if it may be, to the literature on the subject. 
The first scene is laid at Fort Wadsworth, Dakota, in 
the springtime of 1867. It may interest you to know that 
after the Grand Review in Washington in 1865, my bat- 
talion drifted out west, and a year later relieved the 
Second Minnesota Volunteers at the above post. 
In early spring we marched north across country to 
"Bears' Den Hill" on the Cheyenne River, to establish a 
military post, afterward called Fort Ransom. 
One day we traversed a great expanse of level prairie 
land. It was covered with ice, but here and there could 
be seen the close cropped yellow grass peculiar to that 
region at that time of year. As far as the eye could see 
this prairie was dotted with carcasses of buffalo, fresh, 
unmarked by bullet or arrow. They were not gaunt, 
starved beasts by any means. How far they extended be- 
yond the line of vision I am unable to say, but it ap- 
peared to me that they numbered thousands. 
I have my own theory as to the calamity that overtook 
them, but I will not divulge it. 
In the late winter of 1870-71 I was encamped with a 
companion on one of the streams of Milk River, Mon- 
tana Territory, a short day's journey from old Fort Bel- 
knap, a trading post on Milk River. It was also an 
agency, and, if I remember aright, Major Reid was agent. 
It was the same winter that the smallpox terror struck 
the Indians and carried them off by hundreds. The em- 
ployes of the agency and the hangers-on of the trader 
relieved the dead Indians of their fine robes as fast as 
they were laid out, and afterward shipped the furs to the 
States at brisk profit. 
There was much snow about our camp, and the buffalo 
and wolves were very numerous. A three days' storm 
raged, during which we did not leave our "lean-to," ex- 
cept to hustle for wood, which many of your readers 
know is not plentiful off the main streams. 
During the storm the buffalo drifted with it past our 
camp, while droves of elk traveled against the storm 
along the near-by bluff. 
It cleared up bright, cold and calm, and we heard much 
firing the following morning, which gave us intimation 
that there was a prairie Grosventre village in our vicinity. 
We learned afterward that the firing was directed ex- 
clusively against cows heavy with calf, the sole object 
being to obtain that delicacy (the unborn calf) for a 
feast. 
It was the first instance of the kind that had come 
under my observation, and I have wondered if others 
have observed the same trait in the Indians of the plains. 
It was not a time of year when the robes were in good 
condition, and the animals themselves, except the young 
bulls and barren cows, were poor of flesh. 
There was no demand for raw buffalo hides in those 
days, and I do not remember of. any being shipped from 
the section of country along the upper Missouri River, 
but of the finished product, the dressed robe, thousands 
were brought in by the Indians to the various trading 
posts. The price varied from 16 cups of brown sugar to 
$3 in trade ( ?) for a fine robe, and the baling of these 
robes in the springtime for shipment was a feature at the 
main trading establishments. 
The country west of the Missouri, from the Black Hills 
to the Musselshell, was held by the, hostile Sioux, and by 
all accounts was black with buffalo. 
It was common belief that the wolves were as destruc- 
tive of buffalo as the Indians, but the wolves did not 
last long after the white hunters commenced distributing 
strychnia north of the Missouri. 
In the spring of 1877 it was my fortune to be on board 
of the steamer Far West, Captain Grant Marsh, bound up 
the Yellowstone to the cantonment on Tongue River. 
As we swung around the bends well up the river, we 
passed first one and then several great stacks of buffalo 
hides, that loomed as big as hay-stacks on the bank, 
awaiting shipment. 
Somehow they were a misfit in the surroundings. The 
yellow prairie, the winding river, cottonwood timber, and 
stacks of buft'alo hides. 
We may imagine that they represented many a "Kansas 
stand," .and much toil in gathering on the part of that 
noble army of adventurers of whom Mr. Hutt speaks 
with such refreshing frankness in Forest and Stream of 
December 17. 
Buffalo were not as plentiful along the Yellowstone 
that fall. 
In the cold February of 1880, the buffalo came down 
from the north in great masses and congregated along 
the Yellowstone near the mouth of Powder River. That 
was the first and only time that I saw buffalo stupid 
from the effects of extreme cold. A wagon road that was 
traveled daily ran along the south bank of the river and 
kept the buffalo from crossing for some time; but finally 
they crossed and went south. They never returned. 
They met their Waterloo somewhere near the Black 
Hills, or perhaps further south. 
That was the beginning of the end of the buffalo. 
L. S. Kelly. 
The lioness and baboon which formed part of King 
Menelik's recent gift to President Roosevelt have died in 
the National Zoological Park. The baboon died from 
tuberculosis and the lioness from chronic kidney and 
liver ailments. 
