The Animal World, A Book of Natural History Part 14

THE SLOTH-BEAR

Another name for this bear is the aswail--its East-Indian name. It is perhaps the oddest of all the bears, for it has very long and s.h.a.ggy hair, a flexible snout which it is always curling and twisting, and a very awkwardly and clumsily built body. It walks with a curious rolling gait, crossing its paws over one another at every step it takes. And it has a queer way of eating termites and ants by breaking open their nests with its great fore paws, blowing away the dust and fine earth, and then sucking up the insects by forcibly drawing in its breath through its lips. It makes such a noise when doing this that it can be heard from a distance of two or three hundred yards.

The sloth-bear is seldom seen abroad during the daytime, for the odd reason that the skin of the soles of its feet is so delicate that it cannot bear to walk upon ground which is heated by the rays of the sun.

Sometimes, when a hunter has driven one of them from its lair and pursued it by day, he has found its feet most terribly scorched and blistered when at last he killed it, simply because it had been obliged to walk over rocks on which the midday sun was beating down.

When a mother sloth-bear has little ones, she always carries them about on her back. If she stops to feed they at once jump down, but always spring up again as soon as she moves on. Even when they are quite big they travel about in this way, and a sloth-bear may often be seen with a cub as large as a retriever dog perched upon her back, and another one trotting along by her side. And from time to time she makes the little ones change places.

If a mother is wounded while her cubs are with her, she always seems to think that one of them must have bitten her, and immediately gives them both a good sound box on the ears. If several of these animals are together, and one of them is struck by a bullet, it begins to howl and cry at the top of its voice. The other bears at once come running up to see what is the matter, and begin to howl and cry too, out of pure sympathy for its sufferings. Then the wounded animal thinks that they have caused his injuries, and begins to cuff them with his paws. They, of course, strike back, and very soon all the bears are buffeting and biting and scratching one another. They must be very stupid creatures, mustn't they?

The sloth-bear is a little more than five feet long when fully grown, and stands from twenty-seven to thirty-three inches in height at the shoulder. In color it is black, with a white crescent-shaped mark on the upper part of its chest, like that of the sun-bear.

THE PANDA

Besides the true bears, there are a number of smaller animals which belong to the same tribe.

One of these is the panda, wah, or bear-cat, which is only about as big as a rather large cat. It is rusty red in color, with darker rings upon the tail, the tip of which is black. The face is white, and the lower parts of the body are very dark brown.

The panda is found in the forests of the Eastern Himalayas, and also in Eastern Tibet. It is a very good climber and spends much of its time in the trees, searching for the nuts, fruits, and acorns on which it feeds.

If it happens to find a bird's nest with eggs in it, it will suck them all, one after the other. And sometimes it will come down to the ground to make a meal upon roots, or the young shoots of bamboo.

The panda has rather large claws--just like those of a bear--and one would think that they would form very serviceable weapons. But the animal seems to have very little idea of fighting, and scarcely tries even to defend itself if it is attacked.

RAc.o.o.nS

Next come the rac.o.o.ns, which live in America. The best known of them is the common rac.o.o.n, found throughout the United States, and also in Central America as far south as Costa Rica.

This is a very pretty animal. In size it is about as big as a rather large cat, and is brown or grayish brown in color, with a tail that is very bushy and beautifully ringed with gray and black. The head is rather like that of a fox, with a whitish forehead, and a black patch just below it, enclosing the eyes.

Rac.o.o.ns may usually be seen in a zoo, and if you give one of them a piece of bread or biscuit it will take it in its fore paws, just as if the animal were a monkey, and then go and rinse it carefully in the little pond in the middle of its cage. It never eats a sc.r.a.p of food without washing it in this curious manner, and for this reason the Germans have given it the name of "Waschbar" or "washing-bear."

The fur of the rac.o.o.n is so soft and thick that it is very valuable, and the animal is very much hunted. It is generally hunted by night, the hunters going out with a number of dogs, which soon drive the animal into a tree. They then sit in a circle round the trunk, while one of the hunters climbs the tree, drives the rac.o.o.n to the end of the branch, and then shakes it violently till the poor creature falls to the ground, where it is quickly seized and despatched.

Rac.o.o.ns will eat almost anything. Sometimes they will visit a poultry-yard and kill a number of the fowls by biting off their heads.

Or they will go down to the sea-sh.o.r.e when the tide is out to search for crabs and oysters, or to the creeks and streams to hunt for crayfish.

They are fond, too, of mice, and young birds, and eggs, and lizards, and fresh-water tortoises, and even insects. Occasionally they make a meal on nuts or fruit; but although they are such capital climbers, and can run about among the tree-branches as actively as squirrels, they never appear to pluck fruits or nuts as they grow, but only to pick up those which have fallen on the ground.

In Northern Mexico and adjoining parts of the United States there is a small relative of the rac.o.o.n called cacomistle, or American civet-cat (though it is not a real civet). This has a sharp, fox-like face, big erect ears, a cat-like body, and long furry ringed tail; and it makes a gentle and most amusing pet, of great service in keeping a house free from vermin. Hence it is often tamed and kept by miners and others who are glad of its lively company and need a.s.sistance in housekeeping.

THE COATI

Closely allied to the rac.o.o.ns is the coati, or coati-mondi, which you may recognize at once by its very long snout. This snout is turned up at the tip, and gives to the animal a most curious appearance, while it is continually being curled and twisted about like that of the sloth-bear.

It is chiefly used for rooting about in the ground in search of worms and insects, and when the animal is drinking it always turns up the tip of its snout as far as possible, in order that it may not get wet.

The coati can climb quite as well as the rac.o.o.ns and spends most of its life in the trees, seldom coming down to the ground except to feed or to drink. It has a queer way of descending a tree with its head downward, turning the hinder feet around in such a way that it can hook its claws into the little crevices in the bark. During the daytime it is generally fast asleep, using its long bushy tail partly as a pillow and partly as a blanket. But almost immediately after sunset it wakes up and begins to scamper about among the branches with the most wonderful activity, stopping every now and then to rob a bird's nest, or to poke its snout into a hole in search of insects.

The coati is about a yard in length, nearly half of which belongs to the tail. In color it is chestnut brown, with black ears and legs, while the tail has black and brownish yellow rings.

THE KINKAJOU

Only one more member of the bear tribe remains to be mentioned, and that is the very curious kinkajou, which is found in the forests of South and Central America. It is about as big as a cat, with very woolly fur of a light brown color, and a very long tail. This tail is prehensile, like that of a spider-monkey, and the animal never seems quite happy unless the tip is coiled round a branch. And if you make a pet of it, and carry it about in your arms, it will always try to coil its tail round one of your wrists.

It has a very odd tongue, too, so round and long that it looks almost like a worm. The animal can poke this tongue into the cells of a honeycomb, in order to lick out the honey, or use it in plucking fruit which would otherwise be out of its reach. And it descends the trunks of trees head first, just as the coati does.

CHAPTER XII

THE SEAL TRIBE

We now come to a group of carnivorous or flesh-eating mammals which live in the water--the seals.

People sometimes think that these creatures are fishes; but that is quite a mistake, for their blood is as hot as our own, and they breathe by means of nostrils and lungs just as we do, and not by means of gills, like the fishes. Then they have not fins to keep their bodies upright in the water as fishes have, neither do they swim by means of their tails; and their bodies are covered with fur, not with scales.

HOW SEALS SWIM

So, you see, seals are very different from fishes, although they spend almost the whole of their lives in the water. But nature has formed them in such a way that they can swim and dive quite as well as the fishes can. Yet it is difficult to see how they do so. If you watch a tame seal swimming about in a large tank of water, you will see that it glides smoothly and swiftly and easily and gracefully along, rising and diving and turning with the most perfect ease; but _how_ it swims you will not be able to tell at all.

You know, however, that you can row a boat by means of a single oar, if you work it from side to side at the stern. You will not travel very fast, partly because the oar is not very big, and partly because you are not very strong. But still the boat will move.

Now if you look at the hinder feet of a seal, you will see that they are very broad, that they are set far back upon the body, and that, if necessary, they can be placed side by side together. Then think of the body of the seal as a live boat, and of these great broad feet as an oar worked from the stern, and you will be able to understand how the animal swims. It just places these feet side by side, and uses them in such a way that they act upon the water exactly as an oar does, while their strength is so great that they drive the body along very swiftly.

HOW THEY ARE KEPT WARM

But if the seal is a hot-blooded animal, how can it remain in the sea for days together without being chilled? If we go to the seaside, and wish to bathe, we are advised not to stay in the water for more than ten or fifteen minutes; and if we were to do so, we might be made seriously ill. Yet the seal can live for days, or even weeks, in the icy seas of the far north and yet never seem to suffer from the cold at all. How is this?

Well, the fact is that, first of all, nature has supplied the seal with a kind of mackintosh, to keep it dry. This mackintosh, in most seals, is made of a double coat of fur. First there is an outer layer of long, stout hairs, almost like bristles; and underneath there is generally another layer of soft, close hairs--those which you see in a lady's sealskin jacket. And in order to keep the water from pa.s.sing through it, this double coat of fur is kept constantly oiled. All over the surface of a seal's skin are thousands upon thousands of little holes, each of which opens into a tiny bag of oil, and this oil is constantly oozing out on to the fur. So, you see, the furry coat really does act like a mackintosh, for it quite prevents the seal from ever getting wet.

When an animal lives in water which is often covered with ice, however, something more than a mackintosh is necessary in order to keep it warm; so under the mackintosh nature has provided the seal with a thick greatcoat. And this greatcoat is made of a substance much warmer than cloth, or even than fur. It is made of fat. Just under the skin, covering the whole of the body, is a layer of fat two or three inches thick. And this keeps the seal so warm that even when it is lying upon ice it never gets chilled in the least.

FULLY FITTED FOR ITS HOME

The nostrils and the ears of the seal are made in such a way that water cannot enter them when the animal is diving. They are furnished with little valves, which are so arranged that they close as soon as the water presses upon them. And the greater the pressure the more tightly they shut up, so that not the tiniest drop of water can ever enter them.

There is still one more way in which the animal is specially fitted for its life in the water. It has to feed on fishes, and fishes are very slippery creatures. If you have ever tried to hold a live fish in your hand you will know that it is a difficult thing to do, for the fish just gives a wriggle and a twist, and slips out of your grasp as if it had been oiled. So that it would seem quite impossible for the seal to hold its finny victims, even if it overtook and seized them. But when we come to look at its teeth we find that those which we call molars, or grinders, are set with long, sharp points; so that when a fish is seized they enter its body, and hold it in a grip from which there is no escape.

THE COMMON SEAL