Evening Star Newspaper, September 22, 1935, Page 81

Magazine Section THIS WEEK ireball OUND for pound the leopard is the most savage and powerful beast that walks on four feet. A leopard will not hesitate to attack a fighting water buifalo that outweighs il ten pounds to one, and ten to one the leopard will come out on top. Wicked fangs and claws, terrific driving force and muscles, and an indomitable spirit and fierce will, make it the most savage and feared of all jungle fighters. Coupled with this innate ability to battle is 2 mean streak in the leopard which makes him the deep-dved villain of the Malayan forests. A well fed tiger, for instance, will not go out of his way to pick a fight. He will go peacefully on about his business, seek his lair, and snooze comfortably until heis hungry again. But leopards kill for the sheer pleasure of killing. A leopard will go a full half mile out of his way for the pure joy of knocking over an antelope with one blow of powerful forepaws. If he feels sufficiently mean at the time he may even seek battle with a three hundred pound thirty-foot-long python. There is nothing too big for him to attack, and rarely anything strong enough to quell him, All of which makes this story of Fireball news. For Fireball, as dangerous and wily a clouded leopard as I ever laid eyes on,sudden- lv,and in the space of thirty seconds, became as docile and drowsy as any house cat. In my moving picture, “Wild Cargo." | showed the actual capture of Fireball. But I have never told the aftermath of what to me was the most thrilling of all my captures in more than twenty vears of bringing wild animals back alive. Fireball was a clouded leopard. There are three distinct types of leopards — black. spotted and clouded. Probably in-zoos and circuses vou have seen plenty of spotted leopards, and a few black ones. But the clouded are by far the most rare. Even the sakat, the natives who live in the Malayvan jungles, seldom see one of the clouded kind. They are as clusive as an equatorial breeze. move more rapidly, and blend so perfectly with the dense jungle toliage, that it is almost impossible to catch a glimpse of one moving even at a distance of a mere fifty vards. Which is why when I finally captured Fireball I was so delighted. I caught her in a tree — a rare place to catch a leopard. The usual method is to capture them in a baited log trap beside the jungle trail, But Fireball, after I had been on her trail through the jungle mud for hours, suddenly climbed a tree and left me with the problem of getting her down. I shot the limb out from under her with bullets, and had my native boys catch her in an immensely strong wire net as she fell. Having tangled her in the net, carried her back to camp, and successfully put her in a lcg cage ‘I had prepared, the rea! leopard manifested herself. She immediately earned tor herself the name of Fireball. There was no other word to describe her. She literally -manated fire. Her eyes blazed, her snake- like tail seemed like a wind-blown smoulder- Fireball suddenly climbed a tree and left me ing ember, and her whole great body was like a restless forest fire ready to consume any- thing that stood in its path. “She terrible leopard, (uwan,” AL, my Number One boy, said awedly. “Never have I seen kuching like her. Think bad jungle god in her soul!” I'd never seen a leopard like her myself. She was a beautiful specimen of the clouded variety, big and sleek and perfect, a hundred and fifty pounds of feline fangs and claws. But she was more savage than any leopard I'd ever gazed at, and I've gazed at plenty. ['ve even seen one fight to the death with a huge jungle python, ripping snake muscle to rib- bons in a battle to live. But never had I seen one so furious and dangerous as Fireball gs she threw herself again ahd again against the bars of the cage ~nd snapped viciously at the hard wood with her strong white fangs. It was almost as if what Ali said were true — that she breathed through her bared throat the spirit of some evil jungle demon. “We'd better strengthen that cage!” I ordered. “'Get me some nails and a hammer, Ali!"” The strengthening of the cage was a pre- cautionary compliment to Fireball. Malay boys can build of native wood a cage prac- tically as strong as any made of steel. They ** Her eves blazed witn hatred; her hody was like a restless forest fire, ready to destroy anything in its pa th. baw .. use 1ungle logs and raftan - a tough creeping vine which twists into an excellent rope — and the result is a perfect prison for a wild animal, no matter how big. But watching Fireball's tremendous and powerful struggle to break loose made me cautious. She was a valuable specimen and I didn't want to lose her. Nor did I want her bursting suddenly through bars into my camp and tearing the sides out of some of my boys or myself. So I drove some spikes home myse!f and it wasn't until the last one held the last log securely in place that I rested more com- fortably. As I've said, I had never seen a leopard fight captivity sosavagely, and unless Fireball soon ceased her tremendous efforts to break out of the cage there was no telling what might happen. ““That ought tc hold her,” [ said to Ali, stepping back with the hammer in my hand. “No know, tuan. She terrible leopard. Some jungle god in her soul.” Ali's talk began to ‘“‘get” me. Dusk was falling. and when dusk comes in the jungle it comes swiftly, like a black net that sud- denly drops from nowhere and shuts out the light. The sun drops startlingly over the horizon and night comes quickly with its dangerous dark and damp. All Malays are superstitious. When they That was Fireball, the most //a/zgerou.v. savage leopard I've ever seen, and my faverite of them all. Here's why” » TL ~N by FRANK BUCK Famous Wild Animal Collectar; Author fF“Bring "Em Back Alive,” Et with the problem ot getting her down can't understand any event in the weird en- vironment in which they live they are likely to attribute it to the mysterious powers of the jungle vods. For a moment, in the gathering curtain of darkness, it seemed even to me - and 1 am not superstitious — that some demon might have taken possession of this furiously unquelled leopard. Her snarls and roars filled the tropical twilight with unearthly sound, and she continued to hurl her powerful bulk against the bending bars of the cage with undiminished fury. And then, suddenly, she ceased moving. For no reason at all she stood stock still. And she gave me through those crude log bars the most baleful and hateful glance I have ever had from any animal. All the pent-up fury and anger of the jungle was in her eyes during that brief moment in the dusk as she stood utterly still and glared at me. But that one moment was all I needed to disperse Ali's demons from my mind. It was the first time the leopard had not been twisting and writhing and fighting, the first time I had had a good look at her. And that one look was sufficient to explain Fireball's strange actions. “Ali!" I called. “That leopard has just had cubs!” There was no doubt of the fact. One un- (Continued on page 11) . . * . . . . 13 . . . . . . . . . . [ ’ v '