Instinct

Another story my father told me about his wartime experiences in Kenya concerned the camp dog. The naval camp where he was based for a while was a few miles from the Kenyan coast. It was lion country, so the camp was surrounded by a simple trip-wire to discourage animals from wandering in.

One morning my Dad was walking near the camp perimeter and the camp dog came up to him. Dad was fond of  dogs all his life, so he knew the dog quite well. Suddenly the dog went up to the trip-wire, sniffed it then immediately ran at full speed back into the centre of the camp howling its head off.

Dad took a look at the wire and noticed a tuft of tawny fur caught on it - lion fur presumably. Yet the dog had never seen a lion. Apart from the tuft of fur, lions hadn't been known to approach the camp. So how did the dog know a little tuft of lion fur could be such bad news?