On August 24 this experiment was repeated with an important modification
of the apparatus in that the wooden lid of the long box had been
replaced by a wire cover through which the animal could see the bait.
Two poles were as formerly on the floor of the cage, not far from the
box. Skirrl almost immediately noticed the banana and tried to get it by
gnawing at the box. He did not once reach in at the ends of the box, but
he did handle the poles, throwing them about and pounding with them.
There was not the slightest attempt to use them in obtaining the bait.
This experiment was later repeated three times at intervals of a number
of days, but in no case did Skirrl show any tendency to use the poles as
means of obtaining the food.
_Draw-in Experiment_
This also was arranged in the same manner as for Julius, and on each of
five days Skirrl was allowed at least thirty minutes to work for the
bait. Either a banana or a carrot was each day placed on the board well
beyond his reach, and one or two, usually two, small sticks were put
into his cage. Not once during the several periods of observation did
Skirrl make any attempt to use a stick or any other object as a means of
drawing the food to him. Instead, he reached persistently with his arm,
pulled and gnawed at the wires which were in his way, and occasionally
picked up and gnawed or pounded with the sticks in the cage. His
attention every now and then would come back to the food, but it tended
to fluctuate rather rapidly, and in the regular period of observation,
thirty minutes, it is unlikely that he attended to the bait itself for
as much as five minutes. In this respect as well as many others,
Skirrl's behavior contrasts sharply with that of the orang utan.
The results of this experiment indicate the lack in the monkey of any
tendency or ability, apart from training, to use objects as means of
obtaining food. Ways of using objects as tools which apparently are
perfectly natural to the anthropoid apes and to man are rarely employed
by the lower primates.
_Hammer and Nail Test_
One day I happened to observe Skirrl playing with a staple in his cage.
He had found it on the floor where it had fallen and was intently
prodding himself with the sharp points, apparently enjoying the unusual
sensations which he got from sticking the staple into the skin in
various portions of his body, and especially into the prepuce.
A few days later I saw him playing in similar fashion with a nail which
he had found, and still later he was seen to be using a stick to pound
the nail with. This suggested to me the hammer and nail test.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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