Tiger Tricks

Tiger Tricks

Tigers belong in the wild.  The few people who spend any amount of time taming them are exceptions to the rule.  They might feel a calling to a profession like circus tiger tamer or movie animal wrangler that propels them down their dangerous career path.  However, even the most successful ones can end up making a fatal mistake.  The Crocodile Hunter, recently, and Gentle Ben's handler in the 1970's learned the hard way that wild animals can not be fully tamed.

Through my experience playing trumpet in the circus, I have seen a glimpse into the lives of circus tigers.  They are happy enough. The trainer is careful to keep them fed, watered, and comfortable.  They have a routine that gives them a secure sense of purpose.  Since there were five tigers, they could have some sort of social life.  Sometimes, I thought the stage managers treated them roughly when they got the Bengals ready for the show.  Typically, John would poke them with a prybar.  When I asked him about it, he pointed out that these great cats sleep so many hours of the day that he needs to wake them up for the show.  They are sound sleepers, but he is not hurting them - just prodding them enough to wake up.  It is a small discomfort to endure, compared to the perils of life in the wild.

Bengal tigers are an endangered species.  They are also a protected species.  The governments have stopped trying to exterminate them.  However, besides a few wildlife preserves in Kenya, they do not have enough land to thrive.  Humans upset the delicate balance of nature, so that tigers are at the top of a rapidly deteriorating food chain.  Assuming they can stay away from hunters, they will find an inadequate supply of game, caused by shrinking grazing land.  They simply could not compete with humans and their guns - game over.

People rule over animals.  Even primitive people had the advantage of weapons to defend themselves and to hunt.  However, the primitive human lifestyle is as endangered as tigers are.  There are few places left for survivalist tribes, even in the inhospitable climates.  The civilized governments have, with exceptions, stopped exterminating wild people.  In Northern Africa, though, nomadic tribes and refugees still roam the fringe of the Sahara.  It is a very hard and dangerous experience.

Apparently, people are civilized, more or less.  Those who crave freedom and try to live outside the law ultimately lose their freedom in a prison cell.  Not truly wild, they try to take the benefits of society without the responsibilities.  The great countries formerly had a frontier for these types of people to inhabit.  Like a human wildlife refuge, Australia hosted a penal colony where anarchists and other criminal outcasts could dwell.  Now that the land game is over, we explore the Worldwide Web and the frontiers of cyberspace.

Like tigers, we have within us a yearning for dominance, power, and territory.  Unlike wild animals, people can become civilized, because wildness is not the better part of us.  Our wild spirit can flourish within law-abiding activities such as the arts, sports, recreation, and even commerce.  My choice is to live in a civilized way, while my wild side is expressed through intense, savage jazz music.