Rensselaer Democrat, Volume 1, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1898 — On the Education of Lions. [ARTICLE]

On the Education of Lions.

When lions were still numerous and easily observed In southern Africa .they were sometimes seen Instructing one another in voluntary gymnastics, and practicing their leaps, making a bush play the part of the absent game. Moffat tells the story of a lion which had missed a zebra by miscalculating the distance, repeating the jump several times for his own instruction; two of his comrades coming upon him while he was engaged in the exercise, lie led them around the rock to show them how matters stood, and then, returning to the starting point, completed the lesson by making a final leap, file aniUials kept roaring during the whole of the curious scene, “talking together,” as the natives who watched them said. By the aid of individual training of this kind, industrial animals become npter as they grow older; old birds, for instance, constructing more artistic nests than young ones, and little mammals like mice becoming more adroit with age. Yet, however ancient in the life of the species these acquisitions may lie, they have not the solidify of primordial instincts, and are lost rapidly, if not used.—Popular Science Monthly.