Jungle Cavalcade (1941) - Full Movie - Frank Buck
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Short filmTranscript
00:00:30The Malayan jungle, as wild and as dangerous as the animals that live in it, bringing these
00:00:59animals back alive is my business, and the jungle is my office. The only way to reach
00:01:06the real interior of the jungle is on the back of an elephant. These hardy beasts can
00:01:11carry over 500 pounds, but they're hardly what you'd call speedy. In our curve it only
00:01:17averages about two miles an hour, and I was anxious to get to work. From zoos back in
00:01:22America, I had orders to capture alive and deliver alive practically every type of animal
00:01:28that lived in the jungle. I've made many of these trips out of Singapore into the steaming
00:01:34depths of the back country, and each time I've been just as impatient to get off the
00:01:39trail and go to work. But an Indian elephant is not a Times Square taxi, and I've been
00:01:45out here too long to expect to hurry the east. We still had a long way to go from our camp
00:01:52where I had sent the boys on ahead, but you can only go so far by elephant in Malay country.
00:01:58From here on, the jungle gets so thick that working with these big fellas would be just
00:02:03a series of engineering problems. So we unloaded our elephants and prepared to carry the supplies
00:02:09the rest of the way on foot. Food, tools, and medicine are the white man's only protection
00:02:16against the jungle, and I knew that I couldn't call up a corner drugstore for cartridges
00:02:20and quinine if I needed them. Beaver and tigers don't wait. So everything I might require
00:02:28went with me on that long trek into the heart of the animal country. Here I was back in
00:02:33a Malayan jungle, the place that I had cursed a thousand times, but the only place where
00:02:39I really felt at home. I don't know why, but it's not the most comfortable spot on earth.
00:02:45It's 110 in the shade and almost twice that hot in the sun. The dense, damp undergrowth
00:02:52keeps out the fresh air, so the humidity intensifies the heat. There are thousands of insect pests,
00:02:59and all the water must be boiled to kill the 17 kinds of fever germs. And yet to me, it's
00:03:05one of the most beautiful and restful spots on the face of the earth.
00:03:15But beside the beauty and the solitude, the jungle has other fascinations. All about me
00:03:26were signs of menace and lurked constantly in the underbrush, danger that creeps and
00:03:32death that crawls. I'd left man's laws a few miles outside of Singapore. Out here was only
00:03:39the law of fang and claw, the grim code of the survival of the fittest.
00:03:43Not all the creatures are deadly, but they were all on my list. Whatever happened, I
00:04:00was out to bring them back alive. When we arrived at the campsite, I found construction
00:04:09well under way. My native boys had built the framework of our shelter without using
00:04:14any nails. They simply tied beams and poles together with strips of rattan. We had plenty
00:04:20of water, and with the tools I had brought with me, it was no time at all before we had
00:04:25the camp completely finished and ready. It wasn't the water of Astoria, but there's no
00:04:30place like home. But I had a job to do. All around me, the jungle was a teeming menagerie
00:04:41of wildlife. So I thought I'd make an action trip, just to see what the place had to offer.
00:04:48I never left camp without being well armed. A white man is nature's most helpless animal,
00:04:54and though my business is capturing, not killing, I've seen what is left of people who put too
00:05:00much trust in the jungle. Ollie, my Malay number one boy, had been with me for years.
00:05:06We've taken turns at saving each other's lives. I'd sooner walk through the jungle blindfolded
00:05:12than without Ollie. We hadn't gone far before we started seeing some of the creatures I
00:05:16had traveled thousands of miles to get. We noticed the rare proboscis monkey, the Jimmy
00:05:22Durante of the jungle. None of these long-nosed, short-tempered simians had ever been seen
00:05:27in a zoo. So I put this one down for future business. Going on a little further, we started
00:05:36a black siman gibbon, another fellow I determined to get before I left the jungle. We noticed
00:05:44that there was a certain tenseness in the air. The animals all seemed uneasy, afraid.
00:05:49They seemed to be making for cover, as though some unknown danger was approaching. Then
00:05:55we saw the reason. A huge tiger, with more stripes than a top sergeant and twice as mean,
00:06:01was out looking for lunch. So was this black leopard. We saw the tiger creep up, and suddenly,
00:06:14a count on the leopard from behind.
00:06:16Well, it looks like the jungle cat fight was a draw. So the boys separate and go out looking
00:06:46for a meal that won't fight back. The leopard got off easy in that mix-up, but danger works
00:06:5324 hours a day in the jungle. And a python like this can crush a man into the shape of
00:06:58a sausage in three minutes, unhinge his jaws, and swallow him. He's got an appetite as long
00:07:05as his stomach. And I knew the black leopard hadn't any idea of his presence. If he had,
00:07:10he'd have been heading the other way.
00:07:40It's all over now. That python sure did a quick job on the leopard. He was a beautiful
00:08:08specimen. So I sent Ollie back for a cage and some equipment. I wanted him for my first
00:08:14shipment. I was going to get him, but I had to tie him into a bow knot to do it. He had
00:08:20to uncoil himself from the dead leopard before he could devour his hard-earned prey. But
00:08:25by then, he had seen us. And a python knows instinctively that he has no friends. I decided
00:08:36to catch him cowboy style, the way I used to lasso rattlers with a string when I was
00:08:41a kid down in Texas. We ran on into the rope, through the cage, and out the back. Then it
00:08:58was a simple matter to drop the noose over his head. It wasn't so simple, however, to
00:09:03pull him in. These great reptiles have the strength of several men in a tug of war. I
00:09:08knew that if he ever anchored himself with those teeth, the deadly coils would whip around
00:09:13me like the lashing of a bullwhip. I knew that if I wanted to keep my original shape, I'd
00:09:19better keep his head under control. I took a vicious swipe at Ollie that time. So I did
00:09:25the same thing to him. He was pretty well tuckered out by now, but there was enough
00:09:29meanness left in him to make up for it. We finally put more than 25 feet of python where
00:09:35it would do no more harm. He's in the zoo in Chicago now, where his mealtimes are more
00:09:40regular, but not so exciting. After a few weeks at our headquarters camp, my Malay boys
00:09:48and I decided to go after a giant orang-utang. These big fellas are found in the island of
00:09:52Sumatra, southwest of the Malay Peninsula. But our trip over there was well worthwhile.
00:09:59For we soon located this fine specimen. He was a monstrous brute, the nearest thing to
00:10:04a gorilla I'd ever seen in the Asiatic forests. I determined to capture him if I had to follow
00:10:11him from tree to tree the whole length of Sumatra. And he was just as determined that
00:10:16that's what I'd have to do before I got him.
00:10:29After leading us in circles around the jungle, he stopped to catch his breath in a nest that
00:10:34he'd built high up in a huge tree. His treetop penthouse was way out of our reach, so I had
00:10:41Ollie knock at his front door. I thought maybe his curiosity would bring him down lower.
00:10:53He didn't look a bit interested, only annoyed.
00:10:59I could see these tactics weren't getting us anywhere. The orang was over 150 feet up
00:11:03in the tree, and with night coming on, I knew he'd be gone by morning. I'd sent the boys
00:11:09back to the village for a stout rope net, which I had placed next to the tree. Then
00:11:13I prepared to shoot the branch right up from under the big ape.
00:11:29Just as I broke the branch, he got to safety and we had to follow him with our net. And
00:11:38he did a Tarzan act through the treetops. Every time I'd shoot one branch from under
00:11:43him, he'd swing to another. Finally, he really lost his temper. I was throwing lead up at
00:11:49him, so he started throwing things down at me. He was tearing that tree limb from limb,
00:11:55and he wanted to do the same thing to me. I could see that all our strategy had failed,
00:12:00so I let him stew up there while I retired to think up a new attack.
00:12:10We finally built a huge cage with some planks and iron bars we'd brought along, and camouflaged
00:12:15it with shrubbery. If he lacked curiosity, he at least had an appetite. So I baited the
00:12:21cage with a luscious durian fruit attached to a release cord. I was going to let this
00:12:26wise guy capture himself.
00:12:42I probably would never have gotten my giant orang. It weren't for the durian. I've always
00:12:48found this strange fruit indispensable as bait, for it is eaten by every animal in the
00:12:53jungle, even those who ordinarily eat only meat. I've eaten it myself many times. It's
00:12:59very delicious once you get used to the smell, and it smells awful, like a rotten onion.
00:13:05But the pulp tastes like cream cheese with a dash of sherry and almond. It's the one
00:13:10common article of diet in the Malay archipelago. When I got my orangutan back to camp on the
00:13:17mainland, he wasn't interested in durian. He'd rather have eaten the right hand of
00:13:21friendship that I offered him. He sure was a sore loser. Zoologically speaking, he was
00:13:27a beautiful specimen. From many other standpoints of beauty, he was a fur-bearing hangover,
00:13:32and his disposition matched his face. He was strong enough and mean enough to pull my arm
00:13:39from his socket if he could get a firm grip. I gathered that he didn't like me. The last
00:13:44time I saw him, a few years ago in the St. Louis Zoo, he seemed quite content to be
00:13:49away from the kill-or-be-killed routine of the jungle. One day while I was away from
00:13:55camp, a couple of the boys thought they'd conducted an expedition of their own. They
00:13:59were certain they saw tigers under every tree and pythons under every bush, but their most
00:14:04terrifying assailant turned out to be a little honey bear cub that had wandered away from
00:14:09the den and gotten lost. He didn't know it, but the boys had saved his life. Every jaw
00:14:14in the jungle has an appetite behind it, and a helpless little fellow like this has blue-plate
00:14:19dinner written all over him. Full-blown, these pygmy bears were only about 100 pounds, but
00:14:25they're meaner than a mattress of fish hooks. But as cubs, they're great pets, and this
00:14:30one was a long way from the dangerous age. The boys knew that I'd be overjoyed to get
00:14:35a honey bear without having to scour the country.
00:14:44One thing about our camp, located as it was in the heart of the jungle, we didn't always
00:14:49have to go far out of our way to get our animals. Sometimes they saved us the trouble by coming
00:14:55to us. On one occasion, I heard a terrific racket outside the camp. I looked up and saw
00:15:01a troop of golden gibbons were holding midday maneuvers in nearby trees. Here was a great
00:15:06chance for me. I'd wanted to get some of these rare gibbons for a long time, and even the
00:15:11little beggars were daring me to do it. I planned on hanging a trap high up in this
00:15:17big durian tree, and the climbing ability of my native boy was worthy of even a gibbon's
00:15:22admiration. In all our preparations, I made no attempt at secrecy. In fact, I made as
00:15:29much fuss as possible to attract the gibbons' attention. These little apes are one quarter
00:15:33monkey and three quarters curiosity, and I knew that as soon as I'd left the trap, they'd
00:15:39send a delegation over to investigate it.
00:15:45We baited the trap with bananas, but we could have used an old rubber boot just as well,
00:15:50for these gibbons were just bursting with curiosity.
00:15:59One smart little fellow thought he'd figured out the combination. He tried to deal his
00:16:11dinner from the bottom of the deck, but that only got him half rations, so he went around
00:16:16to the front door.
00:16:17They say that curiosity can kill a cat, but it can also catch a gibbon. Goldie, as we
00:16:29call this one, soon became accustomed to captivity and became the pet of the cat.
00:16:37One day I heard a grim story concerning a nearby plantation. It seems that a huge tiger
00:16:44had killed one of the coolie boys and turned man-eater. No one was safe, and the entire
00:16:49neighborhood was in terror. The tiger is the only criminal born with stripes, and he's
00:16:55a killer at heart.
00:17:08The natives were just as anxious to get him off the plantation as I was to get him into
00:17:13the cage, so we made a trip up to the place where the killer had last been seen. He had
00:17:17jumped this fence, so I ordered the boys to saw a square hole in it just above the ground.
00:17:22I was sure he'd follow the line of least resistance and jump through that hole. In the meantime,
00:17:28we started excavation on a deep pit at just the spot where we expected him to land. We
00:17:34had some difficulty with that pit. Heavy rains had made the earth as mushy as oatmeal, and
00:17:40the bottom was always full of seepage. It was a lot of trouble at the time, but we were
00:17:44grateful for it later on. When the pit was finally completed, we covered it over with
00:17:49a camouflage of green bamboo shoots. We were quite confident that we'd capture the killer
00:17:55because man-eating tigers follow the old rule of the jungle world. They always return to
00:18:00the scene of their crime.
00:18:01We had to wait three long days, however, before he finally came back. It was early in the
00:18:11morning, and he was hungry. The hole was a convenience he hadn't counted on, but it was
00:18:16too high for him to crawl through, so he had to jump.
00:18:22We took our crude equipment out of the trap at once. The minute we got there, I realized
00:18:29that we hadn't made the pit deep enough. The only thing that kept Mr. Stripes from
00:18:33climbing out was the water that had seeped in. It had made the pit slippery, and the
00:18:37enraged animal couldn't get a foothold for a good spring. But it's one thing to get a
00:18:42tiger into a hole, and another to get him out again. The earth around the edge of the
00:18:47pit was so slippery, I was afraid any minute one of us would fall in. Before we went any
00:18:53further, I decided we'd better throw a few ropes around our prisoner. He was working
00:18:57himself up into a perfect frenzy of rage and hate, putting on a brave show, just like
00:19:02any other cornered criminal.
00:19:27We had him trussed up as well as we could, but I knew that we'd never get him out just
00:19:53working from above. Somebody would have to go down into the pit and guide the tiger into
00:19:59the box, for only when he was safely caged could I let him be brought to the surface.
00:20:04I was taking no chances.
00:20:06We lowered this heavy box, open end up, into the pit. I can tell you, I'd rather have taken
00:20:35glass and go down that ladder, but somebody had to do it. I'd tried to close the tiger's
00:20:41jaws with a wooden peg, but it had come undone, and his vicious clawed feet were held together
00:20:47by just a few slip nooses. I got the box out of the tiger all right, and the boys lowered
00:20:52him in. I tell you, I was relieved, with that fellow safely stowed away. I was sure glad
00:21:04to get out of that pit.
00:21:15We rigged our tackle up on a makeshift derrick, and hauled our prize slowly to the surface.
00:21:21Well, here was one tiger whose homicidal days were done. The natives could once more be
00:21:27free to tap their rubber trees without constant fear of creeping death. As for the killer,
00:21:32who was a long term behind bars for him, he was committed to a zoo to serve a life term
00:21:38for murder. The commonest animals in the jungle are not always easy to catch. These rhesus
00:21:46monkeys are everywhere, but to put salt on their tails is as hard as putting lard on
00:21:51a needle. Monkeys are the most popular attraction at any zoo, and I always have a standing order
00:21:57for them. Any walk through the jungle offers a thousand opportunities to capture them,
00:22:02and they always have a thousand ways to keep from being captured. Catching them one by one
00:22:07would be a tiresome process, so I worked out a scheme for getting them in wholesale lots.
00:22:28We baited the trap with a regular three course dinner. Chopped sweet potato, tapioca root,
00:22:36and rice. With a feed like that, we could have enticed the missing link, let alone a
00:22:42lot of hungry monkeys.
00:22:48After we had baited the trap, we tied a line to each of the poles supporting the top of
00:22:54the frame, and ran the lines back into the underbrush. From then on, it was a question
00:22:59of waiting until these monkeys got hungry enough to come down out of the trees.
00:23:17We had to wait over an hour for their hunger and curiosity to overcome their caution.
00:23:22When they did decide that everything was on the up and up, they simply swarmed over
00:23:26the net. Their manners weren't very good, but they were having as much fun as a barrel
00:23:31of people.
00:23:42When I was sure that we had all the guests we could accommodate on our free lunch table,
00:23:46I gave Ollie the signal to jerk the lines.
00:23:53When these monkeys finally found out that their free meal had a string to it, they were
00:24:00certainly excited. We were pretty excited too, for we had captured about 35 of them
00:24:05in one haul, enough to populate a complete monkey house and a zoo.
00:24:13It was a comparatively simple matter to get these chattering little imps into our cage
00:24:18and carry them back to camp. As a matter of fact, they soon had plenty of company,
00:24:22for at the end of the week, we'd gotten about 400 of them. And to make up for their
00:24:27first disappointment, the rest of their lives, all their meals would be on the house.
00:24:41One day, Ollie and I ran into this herd of elephants, while we were out looking for a
00:24:45little elephant that I knew to be in the neighborhood. I noticed that they were upset,
00:24:48nervous. I wondered what could be disturbing them, until I saw this little elephant calf.
00:24:54He had obviously wandered off from the herd and gotten lost. But the herd had gone off
00:24:59in the wrong direction, and if they didn't find him, something else certainly would.
00:25:04There was the tiger. The little elephant apparently sensed the tiger's presence too, because he
00:25:11was in a panic of fear.
00:25:42I decided I'd better get into this race too, for I wanted that baby elephant. And I was
00:25:47determined that if one of these animals had to die, it would be the tiger and not the
00:25:52helpless youngster.
00:25:59As soon as the big cat dropped, I set out after the little calf. Bulldogging a Texas
00:26:04steer is nothing compared with trying to get a half Nelson on an elephant. He gave me a
00:26:08workout, all right. The tiger was as dead as mutton, but I had an elephant alive and
00:26:13kicking.
00:26:15After we had him all tied up like a Christmas package, we had to furnish him transportation
00:26:40back to camp. Slung on two poles, it took four boys to carry him. He may have been only
00:26:46a baby, but he weighed over 300 pounds ringside. I was glad that I'd had only a tiger to deal
00:26:53with to get this fellow. If any of his friends or relatives had been around, they might have
00:26:58decided that I raided their attention. In that case, I'd have been flattened and not
00:27:04flattered. Well, they weighed close to four tons each. But Junior wasn't filled with feathers
00:27:10either. And the boys were plum tuckered out by the time they got him into camp. He was
00:27:20quite docile and friendly after he'd gotten his land legs and everybody did their best to
00:27:26make him feel at home, including Goldie.
00:27:35But our elephant was only a few months old, and that meant he was going to get hungry
00:27:39any minute. I figured that a section of bamboo would make an excellent feeding bottle. I
00:27:45was an old hand at this nursemaid business, but it's easier to make a milk bottle in the
00:27:50jungle than it is to fill it. And my guest was letting me know in no uncertain terms
00:27:55that he was used to having his meals on time.
00:28:04I sent one of the boys over to the nearest native settlement to see if he could scare
00:28:08up something to fill an elephant. The local milkman had a silent partner who did all the
00:28:12work. He was a pigtail rhesus monkey, trained to climb up and pick coconuts.
00:28:34♪
00:28:52Insulated by a thick, fibrous shell, the coconut milk is kept cool and refreshing, as though
00:28:57it were in a picnic jug. If you're wise, you'd drink this in place of water in Malaya. You
00:29:03don't have to boil the malaria germs out of it, and it tastes swell.
00:29:08I mixed up a good feeding formula by adding the coconut milk to a bucket of boiled rice,
00:29:14and he went for that mess as if it were the first meal he'd ever had. I did such a mocking
00:29:18to my 300-pound baby that I wouldn't have traded him for ten tigers like the one I had
00:29:23to shoot.
00:29:25♪
00:29:38The jungle is not a bad place to work, except in spots, and most of those spots are on the
00:29:43leopard. This savage cat will eat anything that he can conquer, and conquer anything
00:29:48that can't defend itself. Ollie and I were on the trail of this fine-looking, clouded
00:29:52leopard, an uncommon species that I wanted very much. But the top limbs of the tree are
00:29:57his normal element, and I was afraid I'd have as much trouble with him as I did with that
00:30:02giant orang. I sent Ollie back to camp for a net and some of the boys while I kept the
00:30:08leopard treed.
00:30:10♪
00:30:39♪
00:30:49As soon as the net was ready, I started to shoot the branch off the laundry. He was as
00:30:55nimble as that big orang, and I had to try again.
00:30:58♪
00:31:06There, he landed right in our laps. Unharmed, but plenty mad. All his cunning and treachery
00:31:12were no good to him now, and he knew it. Next to measles, he was about the meanest thing
00:31:19in spots I'd ever caught. And he measured six feet from tooth to tail, one of the finest
00:31:26specimens of clouded leopard that I'd ever seen in Malaya. Of all the creatures that
00:31:30live in the Asiatic jungle, the most appealing to me is the little mouse deer. Full grown,
00:31:36they stand only about eight inches high, but they are regular members in good standing
00:31:40of the deer family. These little pygmies are perfectly harmless, and I always break up
00:31:45the traps the natives set to catch them. Their meat is considered a great delicacy, and this
00:31:51black leopard looked like she was trying to promote a free meal. I've caught a great many
00:31:57of my animals in the vicinity of these traps, but right now, I only had Ollie with me, and
00:32:02no nets or snares. I knew I'd have to let that leopard go, but I could still save the
00:32:07little mouse deer. When I approached the trap, the leopard ran off in the jungle. I knew
00:32:12as soon as I got to the trap that what that leopard had been after was not a mouse deer
00:32:17at all. Reaching in with a leather noose, I found I'd caught a pint-sized tornado. That
00:32:26black leopard had been after one of her own cubs that had gotten caught in the deer trap.
00:32:31He was a cute little fellow, but no better tempered than the rest of his breed.
00:32:44That leopard cub was an unexpected find, but he was as big as we could handle without
00:32:49equipment, so we didn't hang around but continued our search for more mouse deer traps.
00:32:57We had hidden the leopard safe in a tree, so we could pick him up later. The jungle
00:33:03was beautiful that day.
00:33:05The jungle appeared to be full of those mouse deer traps, and they didn't seem to build
00:33:27them as fast as I could break them, but I determined that these harmless little creatures
00:33:31wouldn't be molested as long as I could find the traps.
00:33:44After I released the deer, I started to tear the trap into kindling.
00:34:01With a bullet through his spinal column, he released his hold, and I shook the great
00:34:22monster loose, but I had to finish him off with a few more shots. I was sorry I had to
00:34:28shoot that python. He was a fine specimen, weighing nearly 300 pounds. The python is
00:34:34not poisonous, but I was picking his tiny, sharp teeth out of my arm for the next couple
00:34:39of hours.
00:34:47My bird didn't always take me into such unpleasant places as the mouths of snakes. The day I
00:34:52saw this gorgeous bird of paradise, one of the boys and I were out looking for trap sites.
00:34:57We wanted this bird, but we had nothing with which to catch him. All I had was a ball of
00:35:02twine, but that gave me an idea. While this gaudy fellow was sitting up there like the
00:35:07bird on Nelly's hat, I had the boy climb the tree with one end of the twine.
00:35:11The bird was quite curious about all the details of our work. The framework of our makeshift
00:35:22snare was formed by three sharpened slivers of bamboo, which were pushed into the spongy
00:35:27bark of the tree. I surveyed the job from the ground as a loop of twine formed into
00:35:36a noose, which draped over the bamboo spines. Native blowguns have accounted for many thousands
00:35:43of these birds, for their plumage has great commercial value, and this specimen was a
00:35:48rare find for us, so we were anxious not to harm him. With a grasshopper as big as a hummingbird
00:35:54to bait our snare, all we had to do was wait until he stuck out his neck.
00:36:06While my fine-feathered friend was making up his mind upstairs, the boy and I were busy
00:36:11building a cage to put him in. From the jungle around us, we gathered strips of rattan. It
00:36:16was a simple matter to weave them into a basket. When we'd finished, we had turned out a pretty
00:36:21good piece of craftsmanship. All we needed to complete it was the bird of paradise.
00:36:29He'd spotted that big juicy grasshopper all right, so I left the boy in charge of the
00:36:33snare. While I hid in the brush nearby, I was afraid the two of us might frighten him.
00:36:38It was quite a come-down for the bird, but though he was a bit ruffled, he was otherwise
00:37:04unharmed. It was a great day for me, though, as we put him away in our basket cage. It
00:37:09just shows that you don't always need elaborate preparations or equipment to capture rare
00:37:14specimens. We had come out here with nothing but a ball of twine. Everything else we used
00:37:19we found around us in the jungle. We had perhaps broken the first rule of the wilderness, be
00:37:24prepared, but we had lived up to the second, be resourceful, and now we were obeying the
00:37:31third, be gone. Rivers are often the only trails through the jungle that you don't have
00:37:50to cut out by hand. Usually when we wanted to get up into the backcountry in search of
00:37:54animals, we'd follow the hidden streams that run like arteries through the mysterious heart
00:37:59of Malaya. Pulling our raft through the shallow water, we could see signs of teeming animal
00:38:06life all around us. We headed in for shore as soon as we spotted a likely campsite. We
00:38:21had come up here to look for animals that didn't live in the vicinity of our main headquarters
00:38:26camp. We were particularly anxious to get some flying foxes, and this country looked
00:38:31like their habitat. While the rest of the boys busied themselves in building our camp,
00:38:36Ollie and I went out to scout the territory. We passed the hollowed out roots of a tree,
00:38:41and we heard a noise and decided to investigate. I could tell that we had discovered the lair
00:38:50of some animal that had gone off and left her cub. I didn't want to be interrupted by
00:38:55an outraged mother, so I kept my revolver handy. It was a tiny leopard cub, only a few
00:39:17weeks old. After we put him in the bag, we headed back for camp with our newfound prize.
00:39:47When our river camp was completed, we set out in earnest to locate those flying foxes.
00:39:52These creatures are really huge bats, night flyers, and great fruit eaters. They sleep
00:39:58during the day, so I knew that if we could locate a wild orchard in the jungle, we'd
00:40:03be able to catch as many as we wanted. We didn't have to go far to find them. The whole
00:40:07colony would sleep up in a big tree. It looked like a lot of dead leaves. I was going to
00:40:14catch them in a net, but they were too high up to reach, so we chopped some long bamboo
00:40:19poles. We apparently woke some of them up, for they blundered around in the air trying
00:40:30to get the sleep and the sun out of their eyes. As soon as we had poles the right length,
00:40:36I fastened them to the net. The big bats that were really awake were flying too high,
00:40:48so I figured our best chance was to startle the others and grab them before they could
00:40:52gather their wits. I knew that in broad daylight, they'd be sun blind and easy prey for our
00:40:58net. We were all ready now. All I had to do was just wake them up. We only caught one
00:41:19that time, but he was ugly enough for ten. I never developed any affection for these
00:41:24evil looking animals, and although I was commissioned to get them, I always felt they'd
00:41:28be much more at home in a graveyard than in the zoo. We had captured and caged about a
00:41:46dozen flying foxes before we returned to camp. When we got there, we found we'd been
00:41:52dispossessed by an army of land crabs. These repulsive creatures travel in huge droves and
00:41:58literally eat their way through the jungle. They had destroyed all the food we had in
00:42:03camp. We handled them carefully, because their claws were as powerful as hedge slippers,
00:42:08and we could easily have lost a couple of fingers by being careless. We threw them into
00:42:13the river, but a swift current would carry them off downstream. They've been known to
00:42:18attack a wounded native, unable to get out of their way, and leave nothing but a skeleton
00:42:22in a few hours. So you can see why we didn't want to share our camp with them. There's
00:42:29more than one way to skin a cat, and more than one way to catch him, too. The cat I
00:42:33was after was a black leopard. I knew he was in the neighborhood, and I planned to catch
00:42:38him the same way that you'd catch a catfish, by fishing for him. I had a hundred feet of
00:42:44strong, metal rope for my fishing line. For my fishing pole, I'd picked out a towering
00:42:50betel nut palm that was nearly 75 feet high, and my boy had to be a regular monkey to run
00:42:56the tackle up to the top.
00:43:15We weren't actually fishing, but we were using the deep sea principle of rod and line to
00:43:31capture big game. The betel nut palm is as flexible as fine steel, so we pulled the top
00:43:37down until the tree was bent almost double. Then we tied the line securely, but the slash
00:43:45of a knife would send that trunk whipping back up into the air, jerking our net off
00:43:50the ground. With that black leopard in it, if I guessed right. But we had to have some
00:43:54way of luring the animal into the center of the net. To catch a catfish, you've got to
00:43:58bait the hook, and to catch a cat, you've got to do about the same thing. So we baited
00:44:03our net with a live chicken. If that wouldn't get him, nothing would.
00:44:10As a rule, some camouflaging is necessary when you're trying to fool these big cats,
00:44:14and this case was no exception. We were going to spend the night in the nearby trees, watching
00:44:19and waiting to cut the rope the minute the leopard stepped into the net. The final checkup
00:44:24convinced us that everything was in order before we left.
00:44:34It was rather spooky up in that tree. At night in a jungle, there's a lot of weird noises.
00:44:44It seems to be inhabited by a whole new order of wildlife. If I was only alert, all right.
00:44:51That cat was as black as his own heart, and I was ready to shoot if he started climbing.
00:45:03Well, there's one black cat that won't cross anybody's path again.
00:45:19Most animals are like some humans. They just don't like people. Whenever we stayed too
00:45:24long in one place, many of them would move deeper into the jungle. While we always kept
00:45:29our main camp, we often trekked miles under the brush to set up temporary quarters.
00:45:44Housing was never a problem when we were out on the trail. With a brush knife as our only
00:45:49carpenter's tool, we could carve a bamboo palace right out of the jungle in a few hours.
00:45:56But with all its hardships, the jungle can provide for those who take the trouble to
00:46:00understand it. Anyhow, it provided us with all the comforts of a modern home, including termites.
00:46:25There were no white men and very few natives in this part of the country, so I knew the
00:46:36place would be swarming with wild animal life. After conferring with local tribesmen about
00:46:41the trails, I prepared to set out with the boys to see what there was we could bring
00:46:45back alive.
00:46:55We hadn't gone far before we saw the local welcome committee, the ward boss of the jungle.
00:47:11Only a few hundred yards away, I noticed this political rival, the crocodile. When these
00:47:16two hoodlums met, there was going to be trouble, and I wanted to see it.
00:47:25Crocodiles growling
00:47:55Music
00:48:04It looks as if Mr. Tiger has had enough. That crocodile's hide is as thick as boilerplate,
00:48:09but the hide on Buck and Ollie wasn't, so we continued our inspection tour.
00:48:14Music
00:48:24It's bad enough to step on one of these babies, but to have one fall on you is very unpleasant.
00:48:30I'd have walked right under him if Ollie hadn't warned me.
00:48:34Music
00:48:42He was a beauty, and we decided to go back to camp and get the boys so we could capture him.
00:48:48But when we got back, we found the python was making his way to a small stream. There was
00:48:53no sign of his heart, and the crocodile in the stream.
00:49:23Music
00:49:37That python was using his head, and twenty-odd feet of body, too. The crocodile was too tough
00:49:43for the python to crush, but the powerful rattle was certainly giving him a pain in the neck.
00:49:50I had been commissioned to capture some of these rare spectacle monkeys.
00:49:54They're odd little fellows with their strange eddy-canter eyes, but we had to travel a long way
00:49:59to the province of Pahine to reach their habitat.
00:50:03The monkey isn't nearly as clever as he thinks he is. It's a well-known fact that if he reaches
00:50:08into a small opening and gets a fistful of food, it never occurs to him to let go of the food
00:50:13so that he can pull out his open hand. So we hollowed out some coconuts to try to outsmart
00:50:19these rare monks.
00:50:23We staked out a lot of these hollow coconuts.
00:50:27Music
00:50:31Through a small hole in one end, we poured a handful of rice.
00:50:35Here was a buck's lunch, served and ready to eat.
00:50:39Music
00:50:53Boy, was he frantic. If he didn't open his fist, he couldn't get away.
00:50:58If he opened his fist, he'd lose the rice.
00:51:02Music
00:51:07While he was still trying to figure out the combination to that coconut, we went out to get him.
00:51:13All in all, we caught about 15 of these spectacle monkeys with the old fist trick,
00:51:18and they all resented it just as much as this fellow.
00:51:22Music
00:51:41I've captured a lot of animals by letting them trap themselves,
00:51:45but these were the first that ever caught cells and then wouldn't let go.
00:51:51Music
00:51:55The jungle sometimes reminded me of a theater.
00:51:57There was never a lack of actors for the continuous drama of wildlife that went on all around me.
00:52:03My business of bringing them back alive often gave me a front seat in these exciting performances,
00:52:09but I never really enjoyed them.
00:52:11Animals like the python and the tiger were typical of the code of fang and claw.
00:52:17They ruled wherever they roamed, and big as it was, the jungle wasn't big enough to hold them both.
00:52:23Music
00:52:27If these two jungle dictators were going to meet and discuss their territorial rights,
00:52:32Ollie and I wanted to be strictly neutral, and we had a 30-30 rifle to reinforce our neutrality.
00:52:39Music
00:52:49Roar!
00:53:19Music
00:53:34Roar!
00:53:36Music
00:53:51Roar!
00:53:53It looked to me as if the tiger had the best of it so far,
00:53:56and he seemed to be determined to follow up his advantage.
00:54:00That python is not finished yet.
00:54:03Music
00:54:32Roar!
00:54:34Music
00:54:42Roar!
00:54:44Music
00:55:13Roar!
00:55:15Music
00:55:32Roar!
00:55:34Music
00:56:03Roar!
00:56:05The python tried to toss another coil over the big cat and lost his grip, and his victim.
00:56:10Music
00:56:18I guess the tiger felt that he needed a drink after that, and he wasn't the only one.
00:56:23Music
00:56:27My Malay boys were hardworking and industrious most of the time,
00:56:31but whenever I left camp for a long period, something was sure to happen.
00:56:35Music
00:56:58One of the boys had carelessly forgotten to lock the door on the honey bear's cage,
00:57:02and he'd gotten away.
00:57:04Music
00:57:14The boys were certainly excited, and well they might be.
00:57:18Here was my honey bear cub, running off into the jungle.
00:57:21Even though he'd been born there, he'd only lived in the jungle a few months.
00:57:25It was as strange and as dangerous for him as it would have been for a Pekingese puppy.
00:57:30Music
00:57:38Talk about fool's luck.
00:57:40That little cub walked right over a sleeping python, and neither of them batted an eye.
00:57:45The bear was more worried about the posse that was after him,
00:57:48so he doubled back on his tracks to throw them off.
00:57:50Music
00:57:52The boys were horrified to see him go right over that python again.
00:57:55Only this time, the python wasn't asleep.
00:57:58Music
00:58:04He got away all right, but the boys didn't wait to see what happened.
00:58:07They thought he sure was a goner.
00:58:09Music
00:58:13Those Malay boys were really blue, and of course they knew I'd be furious
00:58:18because of their carelessness in letting the honey bear escape.
00:58:21But the little fella had enough of the jungle,
00:58:24and decided to eat some more regular in camp.
00:58:27Music
00:58:38Music
00:58:42That cub should have gotten a spanking,
00:58:44but I'd just turned him over to his friends for a once-over lightning.
00:58:48Music
00:59:08The armor painted Indian rhinoceros.
00:59:11Like something out of a prehistoric panzer division.
00:59:15I'd traveled way up to northern India to get one of these rhinos,
00:59:18and this one looked like a perfect specimen.
00:59:21He was a calf, not more than three years old.
00:59:24He may have been a baby, but in that family, babies are tough.
00:59:28So I took plenty of time observing him and planning how I'd capture him.
00:59:33For weeks, I'd kept the boys busy weaving a net to catch the rhino.
00:59:38It was the biggest net I'd ever used.
00:59:40It weighed over 1,000 pounds,
00:59:42and we'd practiced our strategy many times before taking it into the field.
00:59:47Our plan was to bring the net up facing him,
00:59:50and he'd have no idea what to do with it.
00:59:54It weighed over 1,000 pounds,
00:59:56and we'd practiced our strategy many times before taking it into the field.
01:00:01Our plan was to bring the net up facing him,
01:00:03and send a line of boys around behind him to drive him toward us.
01:00:08We figured that to avoid the boys, he'd run between them and right into the net.
01:00:12But we figured wrong.
01:00:14He became so panic-stricken that he worked himself into a frenzy of rage.
01:00:19He charged the boys instead,
01:00:21and they got rattled and dropped the net.
01:00:24The net was made of coconut fiber, almost as tough as steel cable,
01:00:28but he tore it to shreds as if it were merely a spider web.
01:00:31He was mad clean through, ready to kill anybody who got in his way.
01:00:51If I hadn't pulled that torridor at that time, he'd have gotten me.
01:01:04But we weren't going to let the rhino get away that easily.
01:01:07We followed his frenzied trail for miles until one of the boys found it.
01:01:11In his panic, he'd fallen into an abandoned native well.
01:01:16When I got there, I could see that he'd never get out by himself.
01:01:20I tossed a rope over him, and we got ready to pull him out.
01:01:28Playing tug-of-war with a rhino is like trying to dry-duck a battleship with ten men and a toro.
01:01:34He may have been just a baby rhino, but he weighed exactly one ton,
01:01:38and his idea of cooperation was just to relax.
01:01:45Anyway, we got him out. Bringing him into the cage was only a minor problem.
01:01:49Getting that cage back to camp was really a job.
01:01:58One day, the owner of a nearby rubber plantation made me a gift of a fine, fat pig.
01:02:03He was a walking pork tenderloin.
01:02:06I had to take care of him myself, because my Malay boys were all Mohammedans,
01:02:10and their religion forbids them to even look at a pig.
01:02:14So it seemed that I'd have him all to myself.
01:02:16At least it did, until the morning when I found a python that had crawled right into our camp during the night.
01:02:21He got through the slats of the pen easily enough,
01:02:24but when he'd swallowed the pig, he didn't have the same slim figure, and couldn't get out.
01:02:44A python can swallow objects four times the size of his own head.
01:03:14By simply unhinging his jaws.
01:03:16It took this fellow about ten days to fully digest that pig.
01:03:20I'm sure he didn't enjoy it as much as I should have done.
01:03:23But it was a fair trade.
01:03:25I'd rather have a python any day than a pork chop.
01:03:43To bag the biggest game in Asia, I had to travel over a thousand miles.
01:03:55I'd cross the Bay of Bengal to the island of Ceylon to locate and capture wild elephants.
01:04:02From a high bluff overlooking the river, I spotted a fine herd of Ceylon elephants.
01:04:07They were just what I wanted.
01:04:12I stayed around to spot their leader, and to make a complete check on the number of animals in the group.
01:04:18It's a big job to capture elephants, and record their numbers.
01:04:23I stayed around to spot their leader, and to make a complete check on the number of animals in the group.
01:04:29It's a big job to capture elephants, and requires a lot of planning.
01:04:41You can't catch an eagle in a butterfly net, and you can't keep elephants in a chicken coop.
01:04:46So I had a thousand tools, running timber, to build a corral right out in the heart of the jungle.
01:05:01It takes elephants to catch elephants, and big fellows like this did most of the heavy work.
01:05:07A docile and obedient, trained work elephant is a combination of dairy, tractor, and truck.
01:05:37While this big bull went through the forest like a squadron of tanks, a whole corps of natives were digging holes to receive the tree trunks that would go to make up our fence.
01:06:06This elephant lifted and set one of these heavy logs in a few seconds, an operation that took 20 men half an hour to do.
01:06:36The carving on this log was duplicated at regular intervals along the sake.
01:06:41It was a native charm, invoking divine protection against being trampled to death by elephants on the next day's drive.
01:07:01Our corral was almost finished. Around four acres of jungle, we had a fence of green logs.
01:07:06They were sunk deep in the earth, and woven together with rope as tough as rawhide.
01:07:11We felt certain that no elephant could break his way through.
01:07:15But just to make sure, we had one of the work bulls test it.
01:07:29The next day, we located the herd that we'd marked off for capture.
01:07:33It was a simple matter to startle them into a stampede.
01:08:04With the help of a thousand coolies, we herded them into the stockade like terrified sheep, and then barred the entrance, the only weak spot in the entire corral.
01:08:14To further protect it, the natives built huge bonfires beside the gate.
01:08:22We had captured the whole herd.
01:08:27The next morning, after the elephants had quieted down, we prepared to cut out the ones that were best suited for domesticating.
01:08:33The others would later be released and allowed to return to their native jungle.
01:08:38To keep the captives from getting panicky, most of the work was done with decoy elephants.
01:08:55The decoys were wise old trusters, and they drove the rest of the herd away from the animal that we wanted.
01:09:11He had been tied to a tree to keep him from running back to the herd, while the tame elephants kept him from getting too frisky.
01:09:20As soon as he'd calmed down, he was put under a corporal's guard of decoys.
01:09:25They led him on a straight path out of the corral.
01:09:28I knew he'd given in, for his trunk was coiled up like a fire hose, an elephant's symbol of defeat.
01:09:39We followed this same method of selection and capture until we had completely filled all my orders.
01:09:55Back in camp, our little honey bear was taking a few lessons in the art of self-defense.
01:10:25That camp was like a circus. There was something going on constantly in all three rings.
01:10:37It was all very well for the animals to play, but we had work to do.
01:10:56There was a boat sailing out of Singapore in a few weeks, and we had to prepare our animals for shipment to America.
01:11:02Only the pelicans seemed to object to the idea.
01:11:32It would have been almost as easy to go out and get another pelican as it was to get this fellow into his basket.
01:12:02It was no simple matter getting our hundreds of animals ready for shipment.
01:12:23Each one was a problem in itself, which had to be solved separately.
01:12:27I did as much as I could myself, but I couldn't watch over all the animals.
01:12:31So I depended upon the boys to tend to some of the details, such as to make sure that all traveling crates were well sealed.
01:12:57The python was closing in on the honey bear when I rushed out, yelling for Ollie and the boys.
01:13:24Ollie ran up with a shotgun, but unlocked it out of his hand.
01:13:30A dead python is no good to a zoo, so I determined to get this one back in the crate alive.
01:13:49It was a tough battle. That big snake had tasted just enough freedom to want more.
01:13:59Trying to coil 20-odd feet of fighting python into a box is something you only want to do once.
01:14:05This was the second time I'd created this fellow, and I was afraid it was getting to be habit-forming.
01:14:29Things calmed down after that excitement, but the best way to keep an animal contented is to give his jaws something to do.
01:14:36They had a long journey ahead of them, and I wanted them to be comfortable as possible.
01:15:06Sometimes I end up with more animals than I've captured.
01:15:10Just as we were about to break camp, my pet mouse deer presented the expedition with a youngster.
01:15:16This little fawn weighed less than a pound, and stood only four inches high.
01:15:21Gentleness and trust are rare in the jungle, so of all the animals I had, I think he was my favorite.
01:15:28I let the honey bear finish his last tussle with his sparring partner.
01:15:41I had accumulated enough animals to populate a couple of zoos, so it was time now to take the long trail to Singapore.
01:15:56When we were finally ready to leave the jungle, we loaded all of our animals onto bullock carts.
01:16:02This was a strange caravan. Each wagon was an ozark on wheels.
01:16:08It seemed almost as though the entire jungle had turned gypsy.
01:16:23After going for miles through the jungle, we changed to motor lorries and drove off to Singapore docks like a regular circus parade.
01:16:32Then it was time to stow aboard my wild caravan, and what strange cargoes they were.
01:16:37Every creature that ever walked, wiggled, or winged its way through the Asiatic jungle would end up sooner or later on my passenger list.
01:16:52It often took me from noon to midnight to get all the animals on the deck, and I used to wonder if old Noah had as much trouble loading his ark as I did mine.
01:17:08But I brought more to those boats than just animals.
01:17:17I brought all the hard work, the fun and the danger that went into capturing them.
01:17:22The unforgettable days and nights that I'd spend in the jungle to bring them back alive.
01:17:28Wherever you are, there's always a tide to take you home, but you never really say goodbye to the promise.
01:17:34It's always, I'll be seeing you.
01:17:37But behind eastern clouds is a constant promise of adventure that pulls you back like a magnet.
01:17:44But I knew that the jungle would still be there whenever I came back, and all the wild animals would be there too, waiting again for me to take the long trail that stretches ahead of the jungle cavalcade.