Apes and Monkeys: Their Life and LanguageGarner, R. L. (Richard Lynch)
Science
Apes and Monkeys: Their Life and Language
Garner, R. L. (Richard Lynch)
Apes; Monkeys; Sound production by animals; Speech
I believe that one of these apes could be kept in good condition for
any length of time if he were supplied with a normal humidity in an
atmosphere laden with miasma and allowed to vary in its temperature. A
constant degree of heat is not good for any animal. There is no place
in all the earth where nature sustains a uniform degree of heat. We
need not go to either extreme, but a change is requisite to bring into
play all the organs of the body.
The treatment which I would recommend for the care of apes is to build
them a house entirely apart from that of other animals. It should be
eighteen or twenty feet wide by thirty-five or forty feet long, and at
least fifteen feet high. It should have no floor except earth, and that
should be of sandy loam or vegetable earth. In one end of this building
there should be a pool of water twelve or fifteen feet in diameter;
and, imbedded in mold under the water, there should be a steam coil
to regulate the temperature as may be desired. In this pool should be
grown a dense crop of water plants such as are found in the marshes of
the country in which the gorilla lives. This pool should not be cleaned
out nor the water changed; but the plants should be allowed to grow and
decay in a natural way. Neither the pool nor the house should be kept
at a uniform heat, but the temperature should be allowed to vary from
60° to 90°.
In addition to the things above mentioned, the place should be provided
with the means of giving it a spray of tepid water, which should be
turned on once or twice a day and allowed to continue for at least
an hour at a time. The water for this purpose should be taken from
the pool, but should never be warmer than the usual temperature of
tropical rain. The animal should not be required to take a bath in this
way, but should be left to his own choice about it.
The house should contain a thin partition that could be removed at
will, and the end of the building farthest from the pool should be
occupied by a strong tree, either dead or alive, to afford the inmates
proper exercise. The south side of the house should be of glass, and
at least half of the top should be of the same. These parts should
be provided with heavy canvas curtains, to be drawn over them so as
to adjust or regulate the sunlight. In the summer time the building
should be kept quite open, so as to admit the air and the rain. The
rule that strangers or visitors should not annoy or tease them should
be enforced without respect to person, time, or rank. No visitor should
be allowed on any terms to give them any kind of food. The reasons for
these precautions are obvious to any one familiar with the keeping of
animals; but in the case of the gorilla their observance cannot be
waived with impunity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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