Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 257, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1919 — Tiger-Hunting Elephants Must Display Bravery or Forever Be Disqualified [ARTICLE]

Tiger-Hunting Elephants Must Display Bravery or Forever Be Disqualified

Not all elephants are qualified for tiger-hunting. Every animal used in the sport must be steady, obedient, and fearless, for if.a single elephant misbehaves or bblts when he confronts one of the huge cats, the deadly contagion of fear may spread broadcast, and runaways, broken palanquins, and loss of life may result. This is the way in which men select the animals to train for the hunt: As a preliminary step, they walk the elephants back and forth in a court where are ranged cages containing tigers and leopards, for the sporting rajahs generally maintain private menageries. When they become accustomed to the smell of these animals, a tiger is chained to a post in an open space, with a leash carefully regulated to limit the length of his leaps. The mahouts then force the pupil-elephant to approach as near the pest as safety allows and to remain for some time within a few steps of the tiger. Each day the tiger’s chain is lengthened, and the prisoner, which is kept half-starved, charges fiercely at the elephant as it comes near. Those elephants which stand their ground without flinching are considered qualified for the hunt in the jungle, but those that have revealed the least timidity are degraded from the rank of hunter—the aristocracy of their kind —and are turned over to ignominious labor. According to a zoologist of the Calcutta museum, among every, thousand elephants that undergo this training only about fifty will not bolt when brought face to face with the chained tiger; but nearly half of those that stand their ground bravely at first retreat before a more ferocious assault.