ANIMALS ARE HUMAN TOO

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 18, 26 October 1943, Page 7

ANIMALS ARE HUMAN TOO

The love-making of a Johnny Penguin follows a rigid pattern,. When lie proposes to the damsel ol* Ins heart, he seleets a pebble, and lays it ;it her feet with pride and affection. If she picks it up, they are engaged. ll' she doesn't care for him, she leaves the stone untouched. Then he picks it up again, walks away, and eventually oilers it to another. One day an old Johnny in the subAntarctic waddled up to Dr. Robert 'Murphy of the American Museum of Natural History and gravely laid at his feet the shiny top of a com densed milk can. The curator picked it up, bowed deeply to the penguin, and they parted with mutual expressions of esteem. • M 0 * "• One morning, following my setter through a sea-marsh, I saw him dash ahead after an old raccoon. The raccoon' entered a small pond, with the setter .swimming in hot pursuit. About halfway across the pond the raccoon came to a submerged log. On this he rested for a second; then, uming cautiously around he calmly faced his pursuer. When his enemy came within reach the raccoon gently reached out his tiny black hands, adjusted them nicely on the head of the dog, and then pushed the dog's head, under the water, holding him firmly there ! The dog's tail and hind feet waved wildly in the air. .Finally he got away and came up on shore, choking, very much amazed, and terribly embarrassed. A little Chimpanzee in the St. Louis Zoo was losing one of his, baby teeth. It was loose but apparently painful and the chimp was afraid to pull it out. His comrades showed a childlike concern over his prejdieament. Several of them tried to pull the tooth, but couldn't get a good hold. Finally an attendant gave one of them a pair of pliers. After a few experiments he knew how to use them, and, believe it or not lie succeeded in pulling the tooth. The whole group examined that tooth; blaming it for their companion's discomfort, they shrieked their accusations, bit it, and even jumped op. it ! The. trainer had a hard, time getting it away from them. At dawn one summer morning 1 was walking through a Held when L saw what looked like a big black ■ serpent with a white stripe down its back : it was a family of skunks, the mother marching ahead, with five small skunks in perfect file behind her. 1 was not the only ob- , server. Barely live feet from Ihem crouched one of my eats. The column of skunks seemed entirely unaware, of his existence, but a moment Inter when the cat made a slight movement toward thorn the mother skunk uttered a barely perceptible sound —a word of command. Instantly each skung wheeled, aimed and fired, with deadly accuracy. The cat. blinded, leaped a lull four feet in the air and tore from the scene. The skunks, like well-diseip-lined soldiers, reformed in single file and resumed their plodding march. With her half-grown baby walking beside, her, a mother elephant was dragging a heavy timber in an Indian shipyard. Two chains, fastened to her collar, were hooked into the ends of the log. At a slight incline the mother had to exert her entire strength on the log and, while she was leaning forward, the youngster suddenly yanked one of the hooks out of the log, throwing his mother forward, on her head. The little fellow made straight for the woods nearby, as hard as he could pound. Getting herself together quickly, the mother took after him, her trunk upraised. She caught up with him, and the men in the yard heard, his squeals as her trunk descended on him again and again. Finally the two of them reappeared, the little elephant walking dejectedly at his mother's heels, holding to her tail.