Gorillas & ChimpanzeesGarner, R. L. (Richard Lynch)
Science
Gorillas & Chimpanzees
Garner, R. L. (Richard Lynch)
Chimpanzees; Gabon -- Description and travel; Garner, R. L. (Richard Lynch), 1848-1920 -- Travel; Gorilla
Another habit that Moses had was putting his fingers in the dish to
help himself. He had to be watched all the time to prevent this, and
seemed unable to grasp any reason why he should not be allowed to do
so. He always appeared to think my spoon, knife and fork were better
than his own spoon. On one occasion he persisted in begging for my
fork until I gave it to him. He dipped it into his soup, held it up,
and looked at it as if disappointed. He again stuck it into his soup,
and then examined it, as if to see how I lifted my food with it. He
did not seem to notice that I used it in lifting meat instead of soup.
After repeating this three or four times, he licked the fork, smelt it,
and then deliberately threw it on the floor, as if to say, "That's a
failure." He leaned over and drank his soup from the plate.
The only thing that he cared much to play with was a tin can that I
kept some nails in. For this he had a kind of mania, and never tired
of trying to remove the lid. When given the hammer and a nail, he knew
what they were for, and would set to work to drive the nail into the
floor of the cage or the table; but he hurt his fingers a few times,
and after that he stood the nail on its flat head, removed his fingers
and struck it with the hammer, but, of course, never succeeded in
driving it into anything.
A bunch of sugar-cane was kept for Moses to eat when he wanted it, and
to aid him in tearing the hard shell away from it, I kept a club to
bruise it. Sometimes he would go and select a stalk of the cane, carry
it to the block, take the club in both hands, and try to mash the cane
himself; but as the jar of the stroke often hurt his hands, he learned
to avoid this, by letting go as the club descended. He never succeeded
in crushing the cane, but would continue his efforts until some one
came to his aid. At other times he would drag a stalk of the cane to
the cage, poke it through the wires, then bring the club, and poke it
through, to get me to mash it for him.
From time to time I received newspapers sent me from home. Moses could
not understand what induced me to sit holding that thing before me,
but he wished to try it, and see. He would take a leaf of it, and hold
it up before him with both hands, just as he saw me do; but instead of
looking at the paper, he kept his eyes, most of the time, on me. When
I would turn mine over, he did the same thing, but half the time had
it upside down. He did not appear to care for the pictures, or notice
them, except a few times he tried to pick them off the paper; and one
large cut of a dog's head, when held at a short distance from him, he
appeared to regard with a little interest, as if he recognised it as
that of an animal of some kind, but I cannot say just what his ideas
concerning it really were.
Chimpanzees are not usually so playful or funny as monkeys, but they
have a certain degree of mirth in their nature, and at times display a
marked sense of humour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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