In contrast to the human eye with its high state of development, compare the human nose. Its development is so poor that it is of little use as an aid to living. If the meat on your fork is bad your nose might possibly detect the odour, or if cloth is burning you might smell it, but when you consider the scent sensitivity of a deer or a dog which can smell you half a mile downwind, it is apparent that the human nose tells its owner literally nothing.
Since size alone is not a definite indication of the extent of development of a sense organ, you must rely on your observation to tell you which of an animal’s sense organs are most highly developed.
For instance, a dog’s nose does not appear to be extremely well developed physically. It is not unduly large, as is the nose of an elephant (its trunk), or the nose and nostrils of a deer, horse or cow.
But by observation, that is ‘seeing’ and deduction you will learn that a dog’s nose is its most highly developed organ, and therefore its most important sense for ‘living,’ with ‘hearing’ as the next sense, and ‘sight’ last on the list.
Watch a dog looking for a stone which you have thrown. His eyes follow it in flight, but when he is seeking where he thinks it has fallen you see him running round with his nose to the ground, and it is his nose, and not his eyes which find the stone for him, and he selects the stone from among hundreds of others solely because it has your scent on it.
Watch a horse when you hold a carrot out to him on the palm of your hand. First he puts his nostrils to if, rarely if ever his eyes, then he takes it in his lips.
WHEN A SENSE ORGAN IS HIGHLY DEVELOPED THE ANIMAL MAKES USE OF THAT SENSE ORGAN IN PREFERENCE TO ITS OTHER SENSES
In a general way an animal’s feeding habits tell you much about its sense development. For instance all digging animals must have a strong scent development in order to find food hidden in the earth.
All flesh eating animals must have good near sight development to stalk and find their food. They must also have a good distant scent development to be aware of food which may be hidden and out of direct sight.
All grazing animals must have very good scent development to select the choice morsels of herbage for their food, and also to warn them of an approaching enemy. They also must have good hearing development, and finally they must have good sight development to recognise an enemy and to see which is the best direction for escape. Since many grazing animals feed by night as well as by day,; the eye must be very large in size in order to take in more light at night, but this is purely a matter of size and not necessarily of actual development or high sensitivity.
SIMILARITY OF FORM DOES NOT MEAN SIMILARITY OF HABIT
Animals which appear similar in shape and form do not necessarily have similar habits. Rabbits and hares are similar in shape and form and feeding habits, but very different in habits.
Rabbits, as you know, live in colonies underground, but hares live singly in a ‘form,’ or nest, on the surface.
When a rabbit is alarmed it seeks safely in the warren.
When a hare is alarmed it seeks its safety in running at speed. A rabbit is attracted by newly dug earth. A hare prefers grassland and avoids new ground.
This dissimilarity of animal habits within their own family group or species exists throughout the whole animal kingdom.
One type of wild dog will hunt in packs, and another will hunt singly, as does the fox. One member of the cat family will climb trees, and pounce on its prey from overhead: another species will stalk its prey at a drinking pool and make its kill there.
One species of kangaroo or deer will live on open plains, and another species will avoid open country, and live only in forest land, while yet another species prefers hilly or rocky country. One type of pigeon feeds solely on fruits growing on trees and another type will prefer ground feeding, selecting fruits which have fallen to the ground, and ground growing seeds and grain.
THE BALANCE OF NATURE
Over countless ages a balance between the different forms of life has been attained.
As a simple example, if all the animals of a country were grass eating, there would be no check on their population growth, the grass which is their food would eventually be destroyed, and as a species the grass eating animals would die out in a couple of generations. There would be no balance.
Introduce flesh-eating animals into these conditions. They live on the grass eaters, and also on one another, and the population of all is kept at a lower level. Further, the weaker animals are killed off, and the stronger alone survive to breed. In a short time a balance between grass eaters and flesh eaters has been achieved.
This is the balance of nature.
Continuous destruction of wild life can easily upset this balance, and, like a chain reaction, the unbalance spreads. The uneven balance of nature can also be caused by the introduction of either a plant or animal foreign to the country.
In one part of New Zealand domestic cats gone wild became a plague. The cat plague was finally traced to the introduction of red clover.
It happened this way. The red clover is very deep throated, and only one species of bee could extract the nectar. This species of bee made its hive in the earth. With the plentiful supply of honey, this type of bee increased rapidly. A certain type of field mice liked the honey of this bee, and they too increased in population, feeding on the earth hives of the red clover bees. With the increase of mouse population the cat population flourished until finally the cats assumed plague proportions.
Excessive trapping also can upset this balance of nature, but trapping used intelligently can help nature to restore its balance. Trapping can also be extremely valuable as an aid to the extermination of pests.
TRAPPING AND CHARACTER TRAINING
It has been shown that TRAPPING calls not only for an extensive knowledge of the mechanics of bush-made traps, but also for a thorough study of the habits and ways of life of all wild creatures.
The person who undertakes the work of trapping, whether for a livelihood or as a means of studying wild creatures at close quarters (as the artist and the zoologist must do) must be a person of wide understanding and great tolerance.
Trapping naturally brings about a love of wild animals, because it effects a full and complete understanding of their ways of life.
No true trapper could be cruel to wild creatures. His sympathies are too large to endure cruelty. The best way in the world to engender a love of wild animals is to be a trapper. Only then can you realise how intelligent and lovable all the wild creatures are.
This does not apply to the average professional rabbit-trapper, who is a trapper solely because it provides him with an easy means of making money quickly.
There are exceptions, too, among wild dog hunters, or ‘doggers.’ Many doggers relish the challenge which is put up to them by a savagely intelligent ‘killer’ dog with a big reward on its scalp. For these, the dogger has to use all his skill and cunning to match that of the wild dog.
To be efficient in trapping work the trapper must possess infinite patience, he must be able to stalk a wild animal in order to observe it at close quarters. He must learn about its sensitivities. In this and all the other work called for in trapping his own sensitivities are sharpened, and his intelligence and observation developed to a remarkable degree.