Down in jungleland: Return to sender

Now, except in silly countries like America, where any and every moron is allowed to keep exotic animals as pets, alongside their children, in most cases, this sort of thing only happens when wild cubs or baby animals are discovered, either “abandoned” by their moms or orphaned. They are picked up by villagers or wildlife staff, and brought to the authorities or anybody who claims to know about animals.

The real problems begin when the cute cubs become hulking adolescents, with all the in-built unsavoury aggro of their tribe (and this is usually across species). Even if you have assiduously taught them (to the best of your ability) how to fend for themselves in the wild — where you wish to return them, of course — the problem is that they’re used to human beings. And when a domesticated tiger or leopard meets a stranger on a forest path and wants to rub up against his or her legs and purr with delight or play fight, well, misunderstandings can arise.

Most cases where wild carnivores have been returned to the wild have turned out to be controversial, in several instances ending in tragedy (either a human or the animal in question is killed). So what does one do with these beautiful creatures, who have been brought up and trained by sweet women, and swaggering wannabe alpha men? Of course, one answer is to return them to a wild place where there is little chance of human contact; but in a country as jam-packed as ours, that’s hard to find. Besides such places will already have their residents, who will not approve of immigrants. Zoos are dreadful places to send such (or any) animals to, and, perhaps, the best compromise are large-scale safari parks (fenced alas), where the animals have some semblance of “territory” and “freedom”, and can lead as normal a life under their unfortunate circumstances.

Wild animals are notoriously difficult to keep as pets, and it needn’t be only the large carnivores. Baby monkeys and apes can melt granite hearts and make the stony-faced smile. Who can resist a wide-eyed baby rhesus, chortling chimp, or innocent orangutan infant that asks to be picked up? When they hit their teens, however, it’s a different ball game: the rhesus will bite, and a chimp is as strong as five men and has anger management issues… And that sweet little orangutan will be a chain-smoker or doing party drugs, and pick your pocket.

So, if it’s difficult raising tigers, leopards or even monkeys, and returning them to the wild, how about the less dangerous animals? Like birds, and animals like the rare pygmy hogs which have been released back into the wild in Assam after a captive breeding programme? Sure, the little pigs may be able to take care of themselves, but the problem is not with the animals — it’s with us — at some point the animals will fall foul of us and pay the price. Basically, the less contact a wild animal has with our species, the better off it is. The best one can hope for is that such animals somehow survive to breed, their progeny do not meet or mix with us at all, and behave like true wild creatures.

Captive-breeding has become the mantra of many zoos but its success rests on one big condition, which has really nothing to do with the process itself. Rare species may be successfully bred in zoos — but if the ultimate goal is to return them to the wild — then there must be a wild for them to return to. The way we’re heading, it’s likely that the “wild” will probably be a superhighway by the time the species is ready to return “home”.

It’s often also a moot point whether these abandoned baby animals have really been abandoned. While we feel no guilt in leaving behind a human being, bleeding to death on the road, we will do no such thing if we come across a tumbling group of tiger cubs in a bamboo thicket. They’ll be “rescued” post haste. Now mama tigers (and leopards) leave their cubs for hours at a time while they go out to hunt, so what you might be doing with your “rescue” act is “cub-napping”. And God forbid that mama tiger meets you a few days later, on a jungle path, leading “your” tiger cubs on a nature walk through the woods!

Ranjit Lal is an author, environmentalist and birdwatcher.