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 also made him another hammock, which was hung a few yards from the
cage. It was intended that he should get into this without bothering
me. But he did not seem to care for it, until I brought a young gorilla
to live with us in our jungle home. As Moses had never used this
hammock, I assigned it to the new member of the household. Whenever
the gorilla got into the hammock there was a small row about it. Moses
would never allow him to occupy it in peace. He seemed to know that it
was his own by right, and the gorilla was regarded as an intruder. He
would push and shove the gorilla, grunt and whine and quarrel until he
got him out of it. But after doing so he would leave the hammock and
climb up into the bushes, or go scouting about, hunting something to
eat. He only wanted to dispossess the intruder, for whom he nursed an
inordinate jealousy. He never went about the gorilla’s little house,
which was near another side of my cage. Even after the gorilla died
Moses kept aloof from its house.
As a rule, I took Moses with me in my rambles into the forest, and I
found him to be quite useful in one way. His eyes were like the lens
of a camera; nothing escaped them. When he discovered anything in the
jungle, he always made it known by a peculiar sound. He could not point
it out with his finger, but by watching his eyes the object could often
be located. Frequently during these tours the ape rode on my shoulders.
At other times the boy carried him; but occasionally he was put down
on the ground to walk. If we traveled at a very slow pace, and allowed
him to stroll along at leisure, he was content to do so; but if hurried
beyond a certain gait, he always made a display of temper. He would
turn on the boy and attack him if possible; but if the boy escaped, the
angry little ape would throw himself down on the ground, scream, kick,
and beat the earth with his own head and hands, in the most violent and
persistent manner. He sometimes did the same way when not allowed to
have what he wanted. His conduct was exactly like that of a spoiled or
ugly child.
He had a certain amount of ingenuity, and often evinced a degree of
reason which was rather unexpected. It was not a rare thing for him to
solve some problem that involved a study of cause and effect, but this
was always in a limited degree. I would not be understood to mean that
he could work out any abstract problem, such as belongs to the realm of
mathematics, but only simple, concrete problems, the object of which
was present.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account