origin and history of wild-animal training
the arena has been in use for public spectacles and amusements from the earliest ages, and its popularity has never diminished. the great changes, however, which have taken place have developed it into a civilized, instructive spectacle, instead of a barbarous and cruel performance presented only for the purpose of exciting men’s passions.
lions have always played a prominent part in these public amusements and exhibitions. they were led as trophies in the triumphs of semi-barbarians, and were exhibited and sacrificed by thousands in the roman amphitheater. six hundred were provided by pompey for a single festival. that the lion should always have figured thus in history is but natural. he is the king of beasts, and though there are24 other wild animals more intelligent in some ways, he always has held, and always will hold, this supremacy over all other brutes.
no wild animals were ever trained by the ancients. it was in turning the power and superiority of man over animals to financial account that the art of training wild animals was first conceived, and it was to further financial gain that it has been advanced step by step since, though the final development of each step has been made by a small number of men who have had an inborn love of daring, and an insatiable desire for the accomplishment of the hazardous.
george wombwell, from whom i am directly descended, was one of the first men who saw the great possibilities in the training of wild animals, although what actually led to the present advanced stage was the result of chance. wombwell’s traveling show was established in england in 1805, and the first wild-animal show, in which the most ferocious of the large felines were used, was formed three years later.
the towering of the kings
trained monkeys and many highly trained27 domestic animals were known in europe, but never before had lions and tigers been subjugated to daily association with men. at that time a traveling show of the wombwell type was similar in many respects to the great circuses of to-day, its chief point of similarity being its amalgamation with a menagerie. the importation of asiatic and african animals was, of course, less frequent and more expensive than now, with the result that the menageries were smaller and less diversified. the greatest care was taken of the animals, chiefly on account of their commercial value, but the proprietors were heavily handicapped by their lack of knowledge respecting animal ways and requirements.
it was a matter of frequent occurrence to take any little sick cubs into the family, and nurse and watch over them as one would a sick child. it was on such an occasion that george wombwell thought of training wild animals as a good business speculation. he had just received two young lions from africa, and on their arrival they were found to be in an extremely weak condition from bad feeding,28 neglect of cleanliness, and violent seasickness. it was clear that unless the greatest care and attention were given to them they would very soon die. wombwell put one man to attend only to these cubs, watching over them night and day, and nursing them with all possible care.
the man who lived with these young lions, ministering to their necessities and comforts, was in daily association with his charges for several weeks, and in that time acquired a familiarity which lessened his fear of them. he fed them daily from his own hands, kept them warm and clean, bedded them with fresh, dry straw morning and evening, dressed, and finally cured the sores which filth and neglect had caused on their sides and limbs, and by the time they were once more in good condition he had developed a strong affection for them.
when he had to leave the lions altogether, he seemed to feel the separation very much, and the idea suggested itself to wombwell that not only would the exhibition of two lions and a man in the same cage be a distinct novelty,29 but it would be a splendid financial speculation. there appeared to be very little, if any, danger, now that the three had grown accustomed to one another, so that when the man begged that the association should not be broken, wombwell told him of his idea, to which he readily consented. in a few days he announced to the provincial public that he would exhibit a “lion-tamer,” and thousands came from near and far to witness this wonderful sight. such was the beginning.
that was less than a hundred years ago. then two sick cubs with a quiet man sitting between them aroused the curiosity of all england, while now a man goes into the arena with twenty-seven full-grown male lions and makes them perform at the same time!
from that first incident, the advance in animal training for exhibition purposes has been steady. many things have been done which no one ever believed could be done; many valuable facts and characteristics about wild animals discovered which would, in all probability, never have been known to science otherwise; and a great many lessons learned30 as to the wonderful power of man over all the animal creation, if exercised in the proper manner.
the advance was much slower at the start than it is now, when every year sees as great improvement in animal training as ten years did a century ago. it was five years before george wombwell realized that it was possible for almost any animal to be trained and handled if he could only find the right man to do the handling. but that was then, and is now, a matter of the greatest difficulty.
the progress during the first three quarters of the last century was very slow. there were various performances in which a man or a woman entered the arena with wild animals and put them through very elementary drills; but it was within the last twenty years only that the involved groups and elaborate tricks of the present day have been suggested and produced.
many things were not known formerly respecting the control of animals, which now form the very first essentials for all trainers, and accidents were more frequent and more31 dangerous. one of wombwell’s most famous trainers was ellen bright, a girl who achieved a great reputation. unfortunately, owing to some slight carelessness on her part, she was killed by a tiger in 1880, when only seventeen years old. had she only realized more fully the need of patience and firmness with wild animals, there is no doubt whatever that the accident which caused her death would not have taken place.
when it is considered how many trainers there now are, with how many animals they perform at one time, what difficulties they have to face, not only with such numbers, but with such diverse creatures naturally so antagonistic to one another, as in the case of the mixed groups, and how comparatively few accidents happen, it can be readily understood how far this science has progressed.
perhaps of all the types of animal training these mixed groups are the most wonderful. lions and tigers instinctively hate each other, and in their native state look with contempt on jackals and hyenas. were a lion and a tiger to meet in the jungle, it would mean a32 fight to the death. if two or more male lions meet in their native haunts, a fierce fight is the natural sequence, until only one is left to bear witness by his scars and tears of the terrible battle which has been fought. should a jackal or a hyena see the king of beasts, he skulks around until his majesty has finished his meal, and then sneaks forward to take the leavings.
and yet, in these mixed groups, lions, tigers, hyenas, sloth-bears, polar bears, and tibet bears are all together in the same arena; one sits quietly on his pedestal while another goes through his act; the lion has to associate with the hyena; and in some cases two animals, naturally antagonistic to each other, and coming from far corners of the globe, perform together without even showing that they object, and have been subjected to this gross indignity by the superiority of man.
it took herman weedon years of patient and painstaking toil and trouble to bring his group to its present state of perfection. the hardest task of all is to accustom animals of33 one kind to tolerate the presence of animals of another kind. there is always the danger of a fight, which between two wild animals generally ends in the death of one or the other, and the trainer has to consider the interests of his employer as well as the great risk to his own life.
in arranging a mixed group, each animal has to be studied carefully; his idiosyncrasies must be humored, his characteristics must be known and ever borne in mind; the animosity between the wild beasts must be taken into careful consideration, and the methods of teaching must vary with each animal according to its special traits. it means years of patient effort, because it is practically training animal nature against its instincts, and the final result of amity, or assumed amity, between such antagonistic forces is for this reason one of the greatest proofs of the extent of man’s power over wild animals.
