When this situation was first presented to Julius, he looked at the
banana, reached for it, and failing, picked up a bag from the floor of
the cage and tried to push it through the wire mesh toward the banana.
He also used a bit of wire in the same way, but was unable thus to get
the food. As soon as a stick was placed in his cage, he grasped it and
used it in a very definite, although unskillful, way to pull the banana
toward him. He was extremely eager and impatient, but nevertheless
persistent in his efforts, and within five minutes from the beginning of
the first trial, he had succeeded in getting two pieces of banana, using
always his left hand to manipulate the stick. This test was repeated a
number of times with similar results. He had from the first the ability
to use a stick in this way, and the only difficulty with the test as a
means of obtaining evidence of ideational behavior is that the
possibility of imitation of man cannot be certainly excluded.
_Lock and Key Test_
By my assistant it was reported on May 5 that the orang utan had been
seen to place a splinter of wood in a padlock which was used on the
cages and to work with it persistently. It looked very much like
imitation of the human act of using the key, and I therefore planned a
test to ascertain whether Julius could readily and skillfully use a key
or could learn quickly to do so by watching me.
The first test was made on May 15 with a heavy box whose hinged lid was
held securely in position by means of a hasp and a padlock. The key,
which was not more than an inch in length, was fastened to a six inch
piece of wire so that Julius could not readily lose it. With the animal
opposite me, I placed a piece of banana in the box, then closed the lid
and snapped the padlock. I next handed Julius the key. He immediately
laid it on the floor opposite him and began biting the box, rolling it
around, and occasionally biting also at the lock and pulling at it.
During these activities he had pulled the box toward his cage. Now he
suddenly looked up to the position where the banana had been suspended
in the box experiment. Evidently the box had suggested to him the
banana. For thirty minutes he struggled with the box almost
continuously, chewing persistently at the hinges, the hasp, or the lock.
Then he took the key in his teeth and tried to push it into one of the
hinges, then into the crack beneath the lid of the box.
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