390 EURAMERICA express sorrow and empathy toward some individuals while taking in stride as unavoidable the loss of others. Buck waxes unreservedly sentimental when recounting the excellence of simian mothers and casts them in the role of heroic martyrs. On one occasion, he is transporting a proboscis monkey family across the ocean, when the male suddenly dies. Although the female is visibly affected, she concentrates on keeping the baby alive. When the baby dies, however, she, despite being physically healthy, follows suit inspiring Buck to comment, “This is the only instance I have ever encountered, in all my years as a collector, of an animal dying of a broken heart” (Buck & Anthony, 1930: 188). Responsible for transporting thousands of animals, Buck’s caretaker persona emerges primarily onboard ship where he does not have the help of Malay assistants who did much of the work in the Katong camp and must do all the cleaning and feeding himself. He faces typhoons, hostile crews, a lack of water and food for the animals, animal escapes and many deaths. Having a soft spot for fragile creatures, Buck expresses a particular fondness for the diminutive mousedeer. As prey to all carnivores including humans, it has been given a clever trickster character, Sang Kancil, in Indo-Malay folklore, and yet the Malays set traps for them which Buck often destroys to release the deer. When after lovingly caring for the first ten mousedeer ever to be brought to America, he tells of his heartbreak when forced to chloroform them because they were not allowed entry by US Customs. Buck’s compassion, though affected by commercial and competitive interests, is nonetheless sincere. G. Durrell (2001) loved a similar tiny antelope in his Cameroon camp, and relates his keen distress at not being able to sustain the lives of the baby Olgiby’s Duikers brought to him by local people after they killed the mothers. He tries to feed them with every kind of milk, and takes them into the forest, hoping they will gravitate toward some plant they can eat, but watches hopelessly as they dwindle away from starvation. When one more is brought to him, he vows not to take it, “but when it nuzzled my hand with its wet
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODg3MDU=