Obstacles to Peace Between Man and Beast

Pictures like the one on the cover of this magazine are a delight to children. Adults too are often attracted to such a scene.

Why do humans react this way? Is genuine peace between man and even the most ferocious beast just a childish dream? Or will it become a reality?

Man an Obstacle

A big obstacle to such peace is man himself. An ancient proverb says: “Man has dominated man to his injury.” (Ecclesiastes 8:9) And man’s history of working injury to his own kind is reflected in his treatment of animals.

For example, numerous wild beasts were captured and made to fight in the arenas of ancient Rome. In 106 C.E., the Roman emperor Trajan reportedly staged games in which 10,000 gladiators and 11,000 beasts were slain to satisfy the bloodlust of sadistic spectators.

True, that particular type of entertainment is not fashionable today. But the growing list of extinct and endangered species testifies that something is wrong with man’s treatment of wild creatures. As the human population explodes, the habitat of wild animals shrinks. And because of human greed, there is demand for exotic animal skins, horns, and tusks. Some experts fear that the only specimens of most large species will eventually be confined to zoos.

Man-Eaters

Another obstacle to peace may appear to be some wild beasts themselves. In Africa and Asia, it is not unusual to read reports of wild beasts that have attacked and killed humans. The Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats states that members of the cat family “probably account for close on 1000 deaths annually.” In India alone, tigers kill more than 50 people each year. Some leopards in that country have also become man-eaters.

In his book Dangerous to Man, Roger Caras explains that leopards sometimes turn to man-eating after scavenging dead human bodies in the wake of disease epidemics. Such epidemics, he explains, have often been “followed by months of terror as leopards indulged their new taste for human flesh and started killing.”

But Caras observes that disease epidemics do not account for all leopard attacks. Another cause is the animal’s excitability, especially when it is near children.

During the years 1918-26, one leopard in India killed 125 humans, as reported by Colonel J. Corbett in his book The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag. Decades later, man-eating leopards killed at least 82 people in the district of Bhagalpur.

A game ranger in Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania) related how he spent five months in 1950 trying without success to shoot a man-eating leopard that terrorized people around the village of Ruponda. Eventually, after killing 18 children, it was trapped by an African villager. Another leopard killed 26 women and children in the village of Masaguru.

Then there is the African lion. When it turns to eating humans, the victims are often adult men. “In my twenty-three years in the Game Department,” writes C. Ionides in his book Mambas and Man-Eaters, “I shot over forty lions, the majority of which were man-eaters, while the remainder were either on their way to becoming man-eaters or were stock-raiders.” According to Ionides, lions become a menace to humans when man drastically reduces their usual prey.

Earth-Wide Peace Foretold

In spite of such obstacles to peace between man and beast, the Bible states: “Every species of wild beast . . . is to be tamed and has been tamed by humankind.”​—James 3:7.

The Bible foretells at Ezekiel 34:25: “I [God] will conclude with them a covenant of peace, and I shall certainly cause the injurious wild beast to cease out of the land, and they will actually dwell in the wilderness in security and sleep in the forests.”

Are such Bible prophecies just an unrealistic dream? Before rejecting the prospect of earth-wide peace between man and beast, consider some indications pointing to the truthfulness of what the Bible says. Some amazing examples of harmony between caring humans and potentially dangerous beasts have been documented.

Can Man and Beast Live in Peace?

“I felt as though I were on the doorstep of paradise; man and beast in trusting harmony.” Thus Joy Adamson described a scene alongside Kenya’s Ura River as she watched a variety of birds and animals come to drink. A fascinating part of the scene was the animal peacefully sitting next to her​—a full-grown lioness!

Was there something exceptional about this particular lioness, Elsa, whom millions came to know through the book Born Free, by Joy Adamson? No, she was an ordinary lioness. The difference was that she had learned to live peacefully with humans.

Later, when the film Born Free was made, a number of tame lionesses were used to portray Elsa. One was called Mara. She was suspicious at first, and then she was very possessive, not allowing her new human friends out of sight. To calm her down, Joy’s husband, George Adamson, moved his tent against Mara’s enclosure. Eventually, he moved his tent right inside the enclosure! “For the next three months,” he wrote in his book Bwana Game, “she slept regularly inside [my tent], usually stretched out on the floor alongside my bed and sometimes on it. . . . She never gave me cause for anxiety regarding my personal safety.”

“One of our favourite games,” wrote Mr. Adamson, “was for me to lie flat on the ground hidden behind a tuft of grass. Mara would stalk me with great stealth, belly low to the ground in proper lion fashion and then there would be the final lightning rush and she would land on top of me. Always she kept control of her formidable claws and never hurt me.”

Another lioness who played the part of Elsa was named Girl. When the film was completed, Girl was returned to the wild, where she mated and produced two cubs. Two of Adamson’s friends located the lair. Adamson wrote: “With the most remarkable trust and good nature Girl permitted the two men, who were taking a considerable risk, to approach within a few feet [a meter or so] of the birthplace . . . Girl’s behaviour was the more remarkable as [one of the men] was a comparative stranger to her.” As for Adamson, Girl even permitted him to touch her cubs, whereas other lions were driven away.

Taming a Vicious Lion

Characteristics differ from lion to lion. While Joy Adamson was raising Elsa, farther south in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), a game warden, Norman Carr, was doing the same with two male cubs. One of the cubs, Big Boy, was very friendly. The other, Little Boy, was inclined to be sulky. Regarding the latter, Carr wrote the following in his book Return to the Wild:

“When Little Boy is in one of these moods, I squat beside him as he snarls at me, just out of range of his paws which he is quite liable to use in a vicious hook with two-inch razor claws extended. Patiently I try to woo him by talking to him soothingly as I inch up closer and closer; and when I eventually make contact he is still snarling but in a less determined manner. As I put my arm around his shaggy shoulders and caress his chest, he will visibly relax as if all his tensed-up muscles have been deflated. . . . He puts his head in my lap, inviting me to fondle him.”

In the foreword to Carr’s book, the Earl of Dalhousie, who was governor-general of the country, relates an incident he witnessed when the lions were over two years old and roaming unattended on a plain near Carr’s camp. Carr whistled, and this is how the Earl described the response: “They came bounding up to their master’s whistle and rubbed their mighty heads against him, at the same time thundering out their happy but terrifying greeting. Their affection for him had certainly not diminished.”

Lions have a natural fear of man and normally seek to avoid him. This instinctive reaction found in lions and other beasts is accurately described in the Bible. (Genesis 9:2) Without it man would be a most vulnerable prey. Yet, some beasts become man-eaters.

“Exceptions to the Rule”

An expert on this subject, Roger Caras, explains: “Among almost all species of big cats there seem to appear a number of abnormal individuals who seek man as food. They are exceptions to the rule . . . Man can generally live pretty much in peace with [the big cats].”

Many animals do not seem to recognize man when he sits concealed in a vehicle. In this way humans are able to take close-up photographs of lions. “But,” warns the book Maberly’s Mammals of Southern Africa, “considerable danger is invited if you open your door, or attempt to get out close to lions, because they recognise the human presence, and the suddenness of the appearance adds to the shock of fear which may very easily prompt an attack in supposed self-defense. . . . There is less danger in actually coming face to face with a lion in the bush than in suddenly appearing out of a motor car in front of him!”

What About Leopards?

Leopards that become man-eaters are also exceptions to the rule. Jonathan Scott explains in his book The Leopard’s Tale: “Unmolested and in good health, the leopard is a shy, retiring creature showing a marked fear of man. If confronted it will usually flee for the nearest available cover.”

Scott spent months in Kenya’s Masai Mara Game Reserve studying the movements of a female leopard that he named Chui. Chui gradually got used to the presence of Scott’s motor vehicle, and on one occasion her cubs, named Dark and Light, came right up and examined his car. Scott believes that behind the leopard’s cold exterior lies a potentially warm nature.

Others have experienced the warm side of a leopard’s nature. For example, Joy Adamson raised an orphaned leopard cub that she called Penny. After being released into the wild, Penny mated and produced a litter. When her human friends were in the vicinity, Penny revealed herself and urged them to come and see her newborn cubs. At the lair, sitting next to the proud mother, Adamson described the delightful scene: “She licked our hands while the cubs cuddled between her front legs, all so sublimely happy. The general belief is that leopards are the most dangerous of all African animals, and leopardesses with young especially fierce.” But Adamson stated that her experience with Penny might prove that “most of the accepted beliefs are a fallacy.”

Another “good-natured” leopardess, named Harriet, provided Arjan Singh of northern India with an even more remarkable experience. Singh raised Harriet from cubhood and trained her so that she could fend for herself in the jungle next to his farm. As part of the training, Singh would sometimes encourage the leopard to attack. “When I crouched down and incited her to charge,” he explains in his book Prince of Cats, “she came at me head-on . . . , but when she leapt at me she made quite certain that she went over the top, pivoting on my head and sliding down my back, without leaving so much as a scratch on my bare shoulders.”

The leopard’s method of play with Singh’s dog Eelie was also remarkable. Singh comments that a “film shows [the leopard] sitting up on her haunches and boxing as the dog charges her​—but she makes no attempt to knock the attacker down. Her big paws go up one side of Eelie’s neck, over her head and down the other side as softly as dusters.”

This friendly relationship between man, dog, and leopard continued after Harriet left home to pursue life in the neighboring jungle. “If someone says that leopards are not to be trusted,” concludes Singh, “I need only think of the many times Harriet came to [my farm] in the middle of the night and gently woke me to exchange greetings as I lay asleep in the open.”

Eventually, Harriet mated and produced two cubs. When her lair was threatened by a flood, the leopard carried the cubs in her mouth and brought them one at a time to the safety of Singh’s home. When the flood subsided, Harriet climbed into Singh’s boat, inducing him to row her back and forth across the river as she took her cubs one at a time to a new jungle lair.

The African Elephant

It has been said that the African elephant is too wild to domesticate. Many people, however, have proved the facts to be otherwise. One example is the touching relationship between three African elephants and an American named Randall Moore. The elephants were part of a group of calves captured in South Africa’s Kruger National Park and shipped to the United States. In time they were trained for a circus act and performed well. When their owner died, Moore was given the trio and returned them to Africa.

The two females, named Owalla and Durga, were introduced to the Pilanesberg Reserve of Bophuthatswana in 1982. At the time the park had a number of orphaned elephant calves who were in bad shape and needed supervision by adult females. Would circus-trained Owalla and Durga be able to take on this role?

After a year, Moore received reports that his elephants had adopted all 14 orphans and that more orphans were to be introduced to the park. After a four-year absence, Moore returned to see for himself. Anticipating a long search in the Pilanesberg Mountains, he was surprised, soon after his arrival, to spot Owalla and Durga among a large herd. “My first, unprofessional impulse,” he wrote in Back to Africa, “was to run up to them, embrace them and lavish them with praise. I replaced that urge with a more rational approach.”

First, Owalla and Durga had to be certain of the presence of their old friend. They inspected his outstretched hand with their trunks. “Owalla,” writes Moore, “towered above me as if awaiting the next command. The remainder of the herd in frozen posture clustered around. I obliged. ‘Owalla . . . Trunk UP and FOOT!’ Owalla immediately lifted her front foot high into the air and curled her trunk skyward in the classic salute position of those far-off circus days. Who was it who first said that an elephant never forgets?”

Three years later, in October 1989, Owalla’s memory was given another test. This time Moore decided to try something he had not done since introducing the elephants to the park seven years previously. Owalla obeyed his command to stretch down and allowed him to climb on her back. Television viewers in South Africa were thrilled to see him ride her amid more than 30 wild elephants. “I did this,” Moore explained in an interview with Awake!, “not as a publicity act but because I was curious to know the amount of bonding and intelligence possible with an elephant.” The Pilanesberg orphans thrived under the intelligent care of Owalla and Durga.

True, the instances of friendship between man and wild beast today are not the rule; they take careful cultivation. It would be foolhardy indeed for the average person to venture into the wild and try to approach lions, leopards, and elephants. But while such friendship between wild beasts and humans is relatively rare today, what about the future? Will it be the rule?

[Box/​Pictures on page 8]

Lions Can Be Tamed!

“COME and take some photographs of me with my lions,” said Jack Seale, director of Hartebeespoortdam Snake and Animal Park in South Africa. Nervously, I followed him to the lions’ enclosure, hoping he would allow me to take the photographs from outside the protective fence.

The enclosure was clean, with plenty of shade from surrounding trees. Nine healthy lions quickly recognized their trainer as he stepped into the enclosure with an assistant. The lions made friendly growls and paced about excitedly.

“Come inside,” Jack said. I pretended not to hear. “Come inside,” he repeated louder. To defend themselves from the lions, all they had were sticks! My heart beat rapidly as I fought cowardice, finally climbing inside. Quickly I began clicking my camera as Jack fondled some of his magnificent charges. What a relief I felt when all of us were safely outside! But I need not have feared.

“The reason we go in with sticks,” Jack explained afterward, “is that the lions are affectionate and give love bites. We hold out the sticks so they can chew them instead of our arms.” Jack and his pride had just returned from the Etosha National Park in Namibia. Why had he taken them so far away into the wild? He explained:

“They were used to film a documentary about what the research scientists are doing to control the population increase of lions in the wild in Namibia. But my lions prefer the life they have grown used to here. In Namibia, as soon as they saw my truck, they came up to it. There was no difficulty in getting them to come back home.”​—Contributed.

[Credit Line]

Courtesy Hartebeespoortdam Snake and Animal Park

[Picture on page 9]

Randall Moore, with his charges in the African bush

What About the Future?

Why is peace between man and beast so appealing? It is because humans were originally created to be at peace with the animals, even those categorized as wild.

When God made the first man and woman, he put them in a paradise area of the earth to enjoy life. It was his purpose for them to have children and to expand the boundaries of that original Paradise until it encompassed the whole earth. In that entire realm, mankind was to have the animals in peaceful subjection.

The Genesis account states: “Let them have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and the domestic animals and all the earth and every moving animal that is moving upon the earth. . . . After that God saw everything he had made and, look! it was very good.”​—Genesis 1:26-31; 2:9.

This subjection of the animals was not to be with brutality. Humans and animals were purposed to live together in peace. This can be seen by the fact that when the animals passed before man to be named, he was not armed. And there was no mention of fear displayed by either man or beast.​—Genesis 2:19, 20.

Original Purpose to Be Fulfilled

Happily, that original purpose of God will soon be carried out, when all man-made governments have been replaced by the Kingdom of God, which rules from heaven. (Daniel 2:44; Matthew 6:9, 10) With God-rule totally reestablished over the entire earth, God’s original purpose for earth and its human and animal inhabitants will proceed to be fulfilled.

The transforming effects of God’s righteous rule are nicely described in many Bible prophecies. For example, note what Isaiah wrote under inspiration: “The wolf will actually reside for a while with the male lamb, and with the kid the leopard itself will lie down, and the calf and the maned young lion and the well-fed animal all together; and a mere little boy will be leader over them. And the cow and the bear themselves will feed; together their young ones will lie down. And even the lion will eat straw just like the bull. They will not do any harm or cause any ruin in all my holy mountain; because the earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters are covering the very sea.”​—Isaiah 11:6, 7, 9.

Other prophecies also show the profound peace that will exist in God’s new world. In this regard Micah foretold: “They will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. They will not lift up sword, nation against nation, neither will they learn war anymore. And they will actually sit, each one under his vine and under his fig tree, and there will be no one making them tremble.”​—Micah 4:3, 4.

None of the wild animals will then disturb mankind’s peace, for God’s prophetic word says: “I will conclude with them a covenant of peace, and I shall certainly cause the injurious wild beast to cease out of the land, and they will actually dwell in the wilderness in security and sleep in the forests. . . . And they will actually prove to be on their soil in security.”​—Ezekiel 34:25, 27.

So the peace and harmony throughout that restored Paradise will be complete. That is why conditions there could be described in the last book of the Bible this way: “‘[God] will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.’ And the One seated on the throne said: ‘Look! I am making all things new.’ Also, he says: ‘Write, because these words are faithful and true.’”​—Revelation 21:4, 5.

Yes, faithful and true. This means that we can depend on God’s promises, for unlike imperfect humans, he has the power, the wisdom, and the determination to carry out his purposes. As one of God’s faithful servants in ancient times said: “Not one word out of all the good words that Jehovah your God has spoken to you has failed. They have all come true for you. Not one word of them has failed.”​—Joshua 23:14; see also Isaiah 55:11.

We can have the same confidence that soon, in God’s new world, his original purpose for this earth, for humans, and for animals will be fulfilled. God-given peace will become an earth-wide reality. And not only will such peace reign among humans but it will also be reflected in the animal realm.