CHAPTER V
CHARACTERISTICS OF DIFFERENT ANIMALS
It must not be supposed that all captive felines are amenable to education. The personal equation enters in very largely. What will do for the lion may do for the tiger, the leopard, the puma, or the jaguar; but what will do for one lion may not do for another, nor can all tigers or leopards be trained alike. Many, in assuming that the lion is brave and the tiger treacherous, and in ascribing set qualities to the others, are generalizing without basis.
The lion is feared for his clumsiness as much as anything, because it makes him likely to do serious damage unwittingly; the jaguar and leopard for their terrible swiftness in action; and the tiger for a tenacity of purpose which, when once aroused, is almost unconquerable. But it cannot be said in general that one is more to be feared than another. It is the individual that must be reckoned with by the successful trainer.
One animal may be of a heavy, phlegmatic disposition; another may be slow and stupid; a third subject to fits of unreasonable and ungovernable rage; another curious and inquisitive, making him incessantly restless; another nervous and timid; and yet another will show a fussy and irritable disposition, and refuse to perform unless all the circumstances are just as he considers they should be.
With rare exceptions, all the felines are untrustworthy and more or less treacherous, and no matter how long they may have been trained, or how well their trainer may know them, they are liable at any moment, and without the least reason, to turn on him. Each one has his characteristics, and it is these special characteristics which require such extremely careful study and continual watching.
Weather affects wild animals in just the same way in which it affects human beings. This appears to be the case specially with lions. Damp, muggy weather will make them seemingly depressed and irritable, and in this state they are doubly unwilling to do anything they do not feel inclined to. In hot weather they become lazy and sleepy, and it is sometimes with the greatest difficulty that any of the lions can be made to perform. This laziness is natural. In his native state the lion sleeps all day, and will only go out for food at night when urged by hunger.
In cold weather, Captain Bonavita finds his lions so frisky and playful that it is extremely dangerous to make them perform, for a playful lion is a terrible thing—with even a tap from one of his paws he can break the neck of a horse.
One cold, frosty day, when Captain Bonavita was trying to get his lions to perform, one, a huge beast, was particularly playful, and, in spite of all his care, at last got one claw in the cloth of his coat. In a moment the animal dragged him to the ground, and, not being able to get his claw free,—as it had caught in the cloth,—became wildly enraged. Had it not been that one of the men outside the cage gave the trainer an opportunity to cut the cloth, he would have lost his life in a few minutes.
THE OLD ARM-CHAIR