Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 164, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1918 — AN EXCITING SPORT [ARTICLE]

AN EXCITING SPORT

Hunting Monkeys in Burmah Is ■ [ Full of Thrills. Consternation in Treetops When Gibbons Are Assailed—Travel Faster Through Trees Than Man Can Run on Ground. t* ■' ■■■" Our most exciting sport at the Namting camp was hunting monkeys, writes Roy Chapman Andrews in Harper’s. Every morning we heard querulous notes, sounding much like the squealing of very young puppies, which were followed by long drawn siren wails./ When the shrill notes had reached their highest pitch they would sink into low, full tones exceedingly musical. We were inspecting a' line of traps • placed along a trail which led up a valley to a wide plateau when the querulous squealing abruptly ceased. We moved on, alert and tense. The trees stretched upward a full 150 feet, their tops spread out in a leafy roof. In the topmost branches of one, \ye could just discern a dozen balls of yellow fur from which proceeded discordant wails.

It was a long range for a shotgun, but the rifles were all in camp. I fired a charge of “BB’s” at the lowest monkey and as the gun roared out the treetops suddenly sprang Into life. They were filled with running, leaping, hairy forms swinging at incredible speed from branch to branch —not a dozen, but a score of monkeys, yellow, brown and gray. The one at which I had shot seemed unaffected and threw himself full twenty feet to a horizontal limb below and to the right. I fired again, and he stopped, ran a few steps forward, and swung to the under side of the branch. At the third charge he hung suspended by one arm and dropped to the ground. We tossed him into the dry creek bed and dashed up the hill where the branches were still swaying as the monkeys traveled through the treetops. They had a long start and It was a hopeless chase. In ten minutes they had disappeared and we turned back to find the dead animal. It was a young male, and I knew at once that it was a gibbon (Hylobates), for its long arms, round head and tailless body were unmistakable; but in every species with which I was familiar the male was black. This one was yellow and we knew it to be a prize. For the remainder of our stay at the Namting river camp we devoted ourselves to hunting monkeys. The gibbons soon became extremely wild. Although the same troop could usually be found in the valley where we had first discovered them, they chose hillsides on which, It was almost impossible to stalk them because of the thorny jungle. We went forward only when the calls were echoing through the jungle and stood motionless as the walling ceased. But In spite of all our care they would see or hear us. Then in sudden silence there would be a tremor of the branches, splash after splash of leaves, and the herd would swing away through the trackless treetops. The gibbons are well named Hylobates or “tree walkers,” for they are entirely arboreal and, although awkward and almost helpless upon the ground, once their long thin hands touch a branch they become transformed Into veritable spirits of the treetops. They launch themselves into space, catch a branch twenty feet away to swing for an Instant and hurl themselves to another. It is possible for them to travel through the trees faster than a man can run on open ground.