Animals: Slaughter

For eight years natives of Zululand, Union of South Africa, have been killing off wild animals to protect themselves from sleeping sickness. The slaughter has threatened some African animals with extinction. Dr. William Reid Blair, director of the New York Zoological Park, sent a protesting cable last week to C. F. Clarkson, chairman of the Game Advisory board of Natal. He urged the adoption of more scientific methods in the control of sleeping sickness. Similar complaints have already been made to South African authorities by Kermit Roosevelt and President Madison Grant of the New York Zoological Society.

The tsetse fly, carrier of sleeping sickness, chiefly attacks antelope and zebra. Since domestic cattle run loose in South Africa, they come in contact with wild animals, are in turn infected. Natives seeing a wild herd fire indiscriminately, shoot many healthy animals. Last year 20,000 zebras, kudu, buffalo, inyala, gazelle, red hartebeest were killed. Only one small herd of the red hartebeest exists today in Zululand. Another victim of native cattlemen is the rare white rhinoceros. Because there are only 47 of these animals left in British East Africa, the government has forbidden the killing of them there. A discovery which may furnish a better method of controlling the spread of sleeping sickness was announced recently by R. H. T. P. Harris, director of research in Zululand. He found the tsetse fly sensitive to pyrethrum (insect powder.) and veratrine (obtained from the root of the Indian poke). Especially effective was a .5% mixture of veratrine and cocoanut oil. Applied to a live animal, this mixture killed the attacking fly immediately. Since there are great stretches of land in Zululand which are unfit for agriculture, protesters are advocating that some of this area be set aside as a game sanctuary. Separated from native villages and pastures by dikes and walls, wild animals would never come into contact with cattle. Similar reservations are already in existence in other African states. The largest is Kruger National Park, five million acres stretching from Johannesburg east to Portuguese East Africa. The building of roads in British territory since the Boer War has made hunting from the back seat of an automobile too easy, has made it imperative that the Earl of Onslow, president of England’s Society for Preserving the Fauna of the Empire set aside territories where hunters may not shoot. Belgium’s largest reservation is Albert Park in the Congo, established through efforts of the late Carl Akeley of the U. S.

Conscientious Fleas

One of the ablest and most prosperous flea-trainers in the world is Jean Rochet of France. Last week in Paris he was negotiating with U. S. immigration and quarantine authorities for permission to take his educated fleas on a U. S. tour. In the course of telling his troubles to a U. S. newsgatherer, he made a pronouncement surprising to laymen: “I prefer the male flea, because he is more conscientious.” Professor William Heckler, owner of Manhattan’s largest flea-circus, disagrees with Jean Rochet. Professor Heckler uses mostly females in his acts. He finds that the male flea, which is much smaller than the female, cannot go without food for long, breaks down under the strain of heavy work, is too highly strung for circus life. Of the 500 flea species known, the human flea (Pulex irritans) is the only kind used in trained flea performances. Fleamen feed their healthy performers once a day, by simply rolling up their sleeves (usually the left one).* Sickly pets are fed more often. Since fleas live only a few weeks, a trainer must always have a large stock on hand. New, untrained fleas are kept in bottles, for two or three weeks, handled daily. When the time comes to train a performer, the end of a thin gold wire 2 in. long is fastened collar-fashion about its neck. This collar must be loose enough to allow the flea to eat, but tight enough so it cannot jump through. When fleas are not performing they are kept in boxes with their feet entangled in cotton. Fleamen say they can tell a flea’s possibilities for the stage by the way it holds its six legs. A flea which always grasps one leg with another will make a ball balancer. One which waves its legs back and forth rapidly makes a chariot racer. Trainers prod the insects with tiny whips when they make mistakes, force them to repeat their tricks. An obdurate flea which refuses to move is prodded into activity, worked harder than the rest. The human flea lives mostly in Europe. Professor Heckler says he obtains his supply from the boat stewards of European liners, who find them while making beds. Greatest authority on fleas in the world is Lionel Walter, Baron Rothschild of England.

* Fleaman philosophy phrases it: “They feed me: I feed them.”