Animal trainers

[Polar]

(02-09-2016, 05:09 AM)Pckts Wrote: Next up is Clyde Beattys "facing the big cats"

Here is my take on him
He obviously favors the lion in every way, when comparing the two he makes sure to give you an impressive example of a Lions feats and if the Tiger is capable of this same feat he may mention it in a slighter way.
For instance

*This image is copyright of its original author

Here you will see his style of over exaggeration
Page 323

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

So as you can see, he usually talks quite enthusiastically for the lion and the tiger seems to get his 2nd Fidel treatment, but that being said he is still coming from a place of experience and some of his points make sense to me. I certainly think he is biased but I have read other trainers who were as well, so we must look past that.

Where Beatty differentiates is the opinions on Tiger and Lion intelligence, I will say he admits hunters and wild life experts he has spoken with will usually say the tiger is the more intelligent animal but he makes cases for the lion as well and he isn't wrong in some of his observations or counter arguments. He even gives credit to one expert who says the tiger is more powerful between the two and even says "said" expert absolutely knows what they are talking about and gives their opinion absolute credence. So in that sense, he wasn't just some blind lion fanatic, hes opinion is just as valid as any other trainer.


Next is the fact that there seemed to be some debate between American Big Cat training and German training.... You saw it from Baumann towards Beatty and reading this book you see why Baumann feels that way, beatty takes multiple jabs at "german trainers" for training their animals with a reward (meat) as oppose to training them via "fear" (blank gun shots and whips)

He states that he feeds his full grown cats between 15-18lbs of meat a day

Lions or Tigers have just as good a memory as an elephant or any other animal (uses a lioness that hadn't performed a trick for over 2 years who then performed it easily when asked later on as an example.)

He actually started with Bears when Lois Roth let him train with Roth's polar bears

Notes on Bears

-Polar bears he trained were up to 1000lbs, Sultan was the worst tempered and Roth told him to never take the whip to Sultan but the problem was that beatty couldn't tell sultan apart from numerous bears who were built just like him.
-Polar Bear are very smart 
-His Russian brown bears and tigers hated each other. He had one particularly bad tempered bear who would swipe at female tigers when they entered the arena then he would get smacked and clawed and realized they weren't to be taken lightly.
He never forgot that and unable to attack the first female that did it to him he went after "Lil" another female who was stretched out above him and she fell below him then he immediately jumped on her and shook violently until he broke her neck. Beatty stated that the tigers usually kill the bears very quickly and he thought that this particular bear knew they were dangerous and thus never let go of his grip for fear that it would mean his demise if he did. He said brown bears when fighting with their mouth usually would bite and let go then bit again, repeating this but it was the first time he had seen a bear do the opposite. Hence why he came to that hypothesis



I still need to read the entire book but what I have taken away from this book is that he certainly was a bit more bias towards lions but maybe he was a bit more defensive about his favorite animal since he seemed to be on the opposite end of popular opinion and would have to defend his stance more readily.  


Next up is Courtney Riley but I'm still waiting on the book.

Beatty's message that "tigers usually kill the bears very quickly" is a very wrong idea to propose, indeed. Again, from a wild perspective, big cats and bears have been feuding for ages now: big cats usually hunt the prey that bears aren't quite good at catching, and big cats usually draw or lose against a bear (though some have won under extreme circumstances) in carcass-domination or death-driven fights. 

About captivity, though, either can kill each other very quickly. The bear might not want to get involved with fighting a friendly adversary and ends up getting clamped around the throat with the tiger's jaws, or the bear, in a expression of utmost hate, might want to kill the tiger with a single blow or bite to the cranium. In captivity, it depends on the circumstances. In the wild, the confrontations usually become one-sided towards the bear's favour, since both animals have respect (and killing instinct/defense if needed) for each other, and the bear is all about seeking domination whilst the tiger's policy is to "mind one's own business and ignore him, unless he tries to kill me." Reply