Taming Wild Animals

Hello again everyone,

It has been a few days since I last posted. To tell you the truth, after loosing our old rhino, I lost the will to write. However, to get back into the swing of writing my blog, I am forcing myself to write right now. Too many amazing things have happened for me to just stop writing and leave you wondering. It is not fair that only my mom and Jack get to hear all of the fun stories every night. Bless them for always wanting to listen.

Today I want to talk about some of the tamed wild animals with which I have interacted. Most of you probably have learned about the disadvantages of attempting to tame wild animals since grade school. One of the first things I learned about wild animals when I was a young kid was that it was a bad thing if people kept them as pets. No matter how cute these animals were as babies, when they would get older, their natural instincts would take over and they would no longer be friendly towards humans. Humans abandon these animals as soon as they become too hard or too large to handle, but these animals cannot survive in the wild due to their dependency on humans. I heard this message repeatedly in school, on animal documentaries, and at zoos. Now I know that the “natural instincts” of an animal are its development into a sexually mature adult through increased levels of testosterone and estrogen. Once animals are sexually mature, they become territorial, acting out against their human caretakers who may be infringing upon the animal’s perceived territory.

Animals in the wild have a natural fear of humans. On game drives, I have observed that wild animals will run away as soon as we get too close. The risk of getting a fatal injury from the flight is too great, because even the smallest scratch can become fatal if it develops an infection. If an animal perceives you as a threat, the animal would rather run away than fight. The exceptions to this rule are when a mother is defending her offspring or when a male is defending his females. Then, the animals may fight to the death.

For example, if one encounters a lion (without something to defend) in the wild and gets too close, the lion will either mock-charge or run away. The mock charge allows the lion to gauge if he or she will win a fight. If you stand your ground and act menacing, then the lion will run away because, as I mentioned before, the risks of injury are too great. If you run from the lion, then the lion knows that you are afraid and will pummel you. By running, you are acting like prey.

What happens when humans raise a lion from infancy to adulthood? The lion loses its fear of humans. Disclaimer: No one here has yet given me the specifics as to why a lion raised from infancy by humans would lose its fear of humans. The answer “lions just get used to the humans” does not cut it for me. I believe that “play” has a role in this process.

Disclaimer: I will attempt to explain my own hypothesis here. I am basing the following statements on a primate social behavior class I took last year at Harvard with Richard Wrangham, a premier primatologist. Even though lions are not primates, they are socially complex animals, so I some of what I learned about primates may apply to lions. The principle that I will focus on here is the function of play in juveniles. From Richard, I learned that the function of play is for a juvenile to learn his or her environment, build social and foraging skills, and forge relationships that will be important later in life. Through play, a youngster prepares for adulthood.

For now, because you are likely to be more familiar with kitten behavior than with lion cub behavior, let us focus on kittens. I have spent many hours at the clinic observing stray kittens at play, so if some of the behaviors I mention below seem foreign to you, please forgive me. If you can picture a kitten playing, the kitten will chase after feathers on a string, chew on little stuffed mice, or it may stalk a certain toy and then pounce on it. If there are two kittens, then they will play-fight with each other: biting each other’s ears, chasing each other. One kitten will end up on its back, and the other kitten will have its paw on the kitten’s chest, showing dominance. All of these behaviors originate from natural behaviors that a cat would need to survive in the wild: stalking prey, killing prey, fighting to defend offspring, mates, or territory, learning social cues, and establishing a dominance hierarchy within a group of cats. The kitten, through play, is preparing to become an adult cat.

I am less familiar with lion cub behavior. However, on the documentaries I have seen, I have observed that lion cub behavior is very similar to kitten behavior, even though there are, of course, differences. Cubs will play-fight because fighting is one of the most important skills adult lions must have, and they must have time to hone this skill just as a piano student must study for years before he or she can play a concerto. I suspect that play amongst cubs allows the development of skills similar to those of kittens: stalking and killing prey, fighting to defend offspring, mates, or territory, learning social cues, and establishing a dominance hierarchy amongst a group of lions.

Now that you have all of this background information, it is time to return to my original topic: attempting to tame wild animals as house pets. I hypothesized that “play” has a role in the lion losing its fear of humans. Let us examine the previous role of youngster play in development. At first, when a lion cub plays with its human companions, its human companions are much larger than the cub. The cub learns that it is weaker than its companions. The cub and humans can have a very affectionate relationship, leading the humans to lower their guard around the lion. As the lion becomes bigger, it begins to “win” some of the play fights. The humans may not be aware of this—to them, the lion is just getting bigger and his playing is getting a bit rougher. As the lion “wins” more dominance contests, he becomes more confident in his own strength. He sees that he is stronger than his humans. In his perceived dominance hierarchy, he is the most powerful family member. Eventually, when his hormones kick in, he becomes defensive. The humans may steal his mates. The humans are infringing on his territory. However, instead of approaching the humans with caution, as he would have in the wild, the lion already knows that he is more powerful than the humans. He already knows that he would win the fight. He becomes aggressive and the family, realizing he is too much to handle, gets rid of him.

The simple answer would be to release the lion into the wild, but there are several problems with this solution. Most of us know that a lion that was raised by humans will fail in the wild because he does not have the proper skills to survive. How did this happen? Shouldn’t the lion’s instincts be enough? Some animals, like the cheetah, can be easily reintroduced to the wild because their skills are based on their instincts: they learn to hunt after failing the first couple of times. However, lions are not successful in the wild after being raised by humans, which I believe means that the lions rely on social learning for essential survival skills. For the human-raised lion, development as a cub was incomplete because he did not have the right type of play. Instead of learning lion social cues, he learned human social cues. Instead of learning how to fight lions, he learned how to fight humans. Instead of learning to hunt from an adult lion, he learned to eat from his food dish. He is overconfident in his own strength because humans are weak in comparison. The absence of the proper type of play with members of his own species causes him to fail.

Keeping all of this in mind, I have had a few encounters with “tame” wild animals that I would like to share. All of these animals have either not yet reached sexual maturity (they have nothing to defend) or they have already shown signs of aggression.

The first tamed wild animal I met was a warthog. As Peter, Jenelle, and I drove up to a farm last Sunday to capture and relocate a buffalo, I saw a blond woman off in the distance playing with what looked to be a dog, hairy and rolling around in the grass, the woman rubbing its tummy. As I got closer and the furry creature ran towards the car in excitement, I could see that it was a male warthog! I could not believe my eyes—male warthogs are notorious for their aggression. Their tusks have gored many dogs and humans. Actually, a warthog killed one of my host family’s dogs recently.

I got out of the car cautiously and went up to the warthog. I asked the woman, “Is he a pet warthog?” She said yes! She had found the warthog as a baby and had taken him in. He was not yet sexually mature. I looked down at the warthog and he was on his “knees” looking for grubs in the grass, as warthogs are often apt to do. I knelt down and engaged the warthog. His skin was very rough and his hair was widely spaced and very wiry! I could see each individual hair cuticle. He was very excited to meet me and bounced around in the grass, just like a dog would. He came up to me and sniffed all of the important places—my scrubs, my shoes, and my hands. Then I scratched behind his ears and stroked his nose. This was certainly the nicest warthog I had ever met.

When it was time to find the buffalo in question, I got to ride in a helicopter first time in my entire life! It was absolutely amazing. I do not think my words can give justice to this experience. As I flew above the bush with Dr. Rogers and the pilot, I saw giraffe, nyala, zebra, and all sorts of wildlife. It was breathtaking to see the world from an entirely different point of view—from that of a hawk or a bat. It really made me appreciate how small I am compared to the vastness of our planet. It was indeed humbling, but I cannot wait to go up again.

Anyway, I mention the helicopter in this post because the warthog reacted hilariously to it. When we were revving up for takeoff, the warthog went crazy with excitement! It darted back and forth, would roll around in the grass, make grunting noises, and playfully mock-charge it. I have never seen a member of a pig-like species so excited in my entire life. Perhaps it was because its caretakers played with it as if it was a dog?

The woman’s husband thinks that once the warthog becomes older, he will not be friendly anymore. We will have to see.

One of my favorite experiences thus far has been interacting with Jessica, a twelve-year-old tamed hippo. What most of you are probably thinking is the same as my first reaction to hearing that there was a tame hippo: hippos are notoriously the most dangerous animals in Africa. There are more hippo-caused human deaths than those by any other animal in Africa. Hippos are territorial, fast, massive, and have razor sharp teeth. I was excited to visit this tame hippo; it would be an once-in-a-lifetime chance to touch a non-tranquilized hippo—unless I want my hand bitten off.

You may have heard about Jessica on Animal planet or one of the 83 documentaries including her. The story goes like this: After the 2000 Mozambique floods (which greatly impacted South African rivers), Tonie Joubert found a newborn baby hippo washed up on his lawn bordering the Blyde River. The umbilical cord was still attached. Tonie named the baby Jessica and hand-raised her himself—bottle-feeding her, allowing her to sleep in the house, and swimming with her in the river. Their bond became incredibly strong. Tonie insists that Jessica is different than most tamed wild animals because she was never forced to remain in the company of humans. Jessica is free to leave whenever she likes. She may hang out in the house, in the river neighboring the house, or just decide to swim away for good. Tonie wants to make sure that it is Jessica’s choice to spend time with her human companions; she is never confined or made to do anything against her will.

Twelve years later, Jessica is on the verge of becoming a sexually mature adult hippo. Hippos actually do not become sexually mature at a certain age, as in most animals. Rather, she becomes sexually mature when she reaches a certain weight. This is because a female hippo must be able to bear the weight of a male hippo when they mate. Even though Jessica still enters the house frequently, she chooses to spend nights with the pod of wild hippos downstream, and spends the day with her human companions. Many animal behaviorists doubt whether Jessica will stay “tame” once she is sexually mature and has a calf, as hippos are notorious for being ferociously defensive of their offspring. However, Tonie insists that he and Jessica’s bond will remain strong. When Jessica becomes pregnant, he plans on being there with her when she delivers her calf. The reason why Tonie is so confident in their bond is that once, Jessica defended Tonie from an attacking crocodile. She shielded with Tonie with her body and tore the crocodile to shreds. Once she was sure Tonie was safe, she turned to him and made a sound to him to Tonie has only heard mother hippos make to their calves. Tonie insists that this is a vocal admission of love.

For the small fee of R75 ($9.38), I got to meet and interact with Jessica the Hippo. The interaction began with a 20-minute excerpt from one of the documentaries about Jessica, explaining how she was found, how she was cared for, and problems that experts believe Tonie faces when Jessica becomes an adult hippo. Then, we got to meet Jessica herself. Each of us was allowed to feed Jessica a piece of bread, feed her a few slices of potato, bottle-feed her Lipton tea, and stroke her on the nose. She opened her mouth widely for each piece of food so we got to see all of her teeth! Her skin was rubbery and wet! There were thick hairs, widely spaced, on her nose. I admit that it was quite surreal to stroke Africa’s most dangerous animal and have her enjoy it too.

Then, all of the women were allowed to kiss Jessica. Tonie said that she did not like males kissing her (except Tonie, of course). We were instructed to lean down in front of her, say “suni suni suni” in a baby-voice, touch her nose, and then kiss her on the nose. Then, Jessica allowed us to rub our bare feet against her back. Her skin felt very interesting against our feet! Tonie said that we were “getting a pedicure” from Jessica. I was in awe. How could such a powerful creature feel so comfortable around us humans, and would she stay this way forever?

A few days later, I encountered a pet vervet monkey. The owner had called Dr. Rogers requesting the monkey’s canine teeth to be removed, because the monkey had bitten the man’s daughter and had needed 38 stiches. Woah. Hold the phone. First, having a monkey as a pet is illegal in South Africa exactly for this reason: wild animals kept as pets hurt people. Second, the owner’s solution to behavioral problems was pulling out the monkey’s perfectly healthy teeth? If you could train a dog not to bite, you could surely train a monkey, which is more intelligent than a dog, not to bite. You do not pull out a dog’s teeth just because it bites. The owner was just lazy. Dr. Rogers refused to do the procedure for the sake of morality. He instead suggested castration, a publically accepted veterinary procedure. Castration would lower the monkey’s testosterone and reduce aggression.

I was able to interact with the monkey before the operation, although he had to stay in his cage the entire time. He would stick his fingers out of the cage so I could hold his hand. He seemed to like the company. Otherwise, the only time I could touch him was when he was under anesthesia. It was incredible to see how similar his hands were to mine. His fingernails were black and a bit long. He had several more pads on his hands, I assume for greater traction while swinging through the trees.

Many of you may not know what a vervet monkey looks like; a quick search on Google will answer your question. What you may not see from the pictures is the colors of the monkey’s genitalia. The scrotum is bright blue and the penis is bright red. Similarly, the nipple is bright red while the skin surrounding it is bright blue. From my Primate Social Behavior class with Richard Wrangham, I learned that the brighter the coloring, the better. The male with the best coloring will mate with more females, so he does the best he can to show it off.

The discussion of genitalia is relevant, of course, because we were doing a castration. Dr. Rogers had actually never done a vervet monkey castration before, but handled it like a champ. The surgery went well, without any problems. However, because the monkey was so dexterous and could easily pull out stiches, Dr. Rogers put two layers of stiches in the skin (normally, there is only one). He tied each suture with several knots to prevent little fingers from pulling out the suture.

That’s all for now, folks!

Sincerely,

Aria