The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals Part 11

The true mental status of the gorilla was discovered in 1919 and 1920, at 15 Sloane Street, London, by Major Rupert Penny, of the Royal Air Service, and his young relative, Miss Alyse Cunningham.

Prior to that time, through various combinations of r.e.t.a.r.ding circ.u.mstances, no living gorilla had ever been placed and kept in an environment calculated to develop and display the real mental calibre of the gorilla mind. It seems that an exhibition cage, in a zoological park or garden thronged with visitors, actually tends to the suppression, or even the complete extinguishment, of true gorilla character. The atmosphere of the footlights and the stage in which the chimpanzee delights and thrives is to the gorilla repulsive and unbearable.

Judging by Major Penny's "John," the gorilla wishes to live in a high-cla.s.s human family, in a modern house, and be treated like a human being! It is now definitely recognized by us, and also by our colleagues in the London Zoological Gardens, that gorillas can not live long and thrive on public exhibition, before great crowds of people, and that it is folly to insist upon trying to compel them to do so. The male individual that lived several years in the Breslau Zoological Garden and attained the age of seven years was a striking exception.

We have had two gorillas at our Park, one of which, a female named Dinah, arrived in good health, and lived with us eleven and one- half months. Her mind was dull and hopelessly unresponsive. She learned next to nothing, and she did nothing really interesting.

Other captive gorillas I have known have been equally morose and unresponsive, and lived fewer months than Dinah.

It is because of such animals as Dinah that for fifty years the mental status of the gorilla species has been under a cloud. Until now it has been much misunderstood and unappreciated. Of the few gorillas that have been seen in England and America, I think that all save John have been so morose and unresponsive, _and so undeveloped by companions.h.i.+p and training_, that mentally they have been rated far below the chimpanzee and orang.

Our own Dinah was no exception to the rule. Personally she was a stupid little thing, even when in excellent health. Her most p.r.o.nounced and exasperating stupidities were shown in her refusal to eat, or to taste, strange food, even when very hungry. Any ape that does not know enough to eat a fine, ripe banana, and will only mince away at the _inner lining_ of the banana skin, is an unmitigated numskull, and hardly fit to live. Dinah was all that, and more. But, alas! We have seen a few stupid human children who obstinately refused even to taste certain new and unknown kinds of food, because they "know" they will not like them! So Dinah was not alone in her childish folly.

At last a chain of circ.u.mstances placed an intellectual and sensible gorilla, two years of age, in the hands of a family specially fitted by education and home surroundings to develop its mind and its manners. The results of those efforts have given to the gorilla an entirely new mental status. Thanks to the enterprise and diligence of Major Rupert Penny and Miss Cunningham in purchasing and caring for a sick and miserable young male gorilla,--a most hazardous risk,--a new chapter in wild-animal psychology now is to be written.

In December, 1918, "John Gorilla" was purchased in a London department store, out of a daily atmosphere heated to _85 degrees_, and a nightly condition of solitude and terror. From that awful state it was taken to live in Major Penny's comfortable apartments. John was seriously ill. He was in a "rickety"

condition, and he weighed only 32 pounds. With a pure atmosphere, kept at 65 degrees only, and amid good surroundings, he soon became well. He attained such robust health and buoyant spirits that in March, 1921, he stood 40 1/2 inches high and weighed 112 pounds.

At my solicitation Miss Cunningham wrote out for me the very remarkable personal history of that wonderful animal,--apparently the most wonderful gorilla ever observed in captivity. It is a clear, straightforward and convincing record, and not one of its statements is to be for one moment doubted. While it is too long to reproduce here in its entirety, I will present a condensation of it, in Miss Cunningham's own words that will record the salient facts,--with no changes save in arrangement.

Miss Cunningham says:

LONELINESS. "We soon found it was impossible to leave him alone at night, because he shrieked every night, and nearly all night, from loneliness and fear. This we found he had done in the store where he lived before coming to us. He always began to cry directly he saw the a.s.sistants putting things away for the night. We found that this loneliness at night was trying on his health and appet.i.te. As soon as possible my nephew had his bed made up every night in the room adjoining the cage, with the result that John was quite happy, and began to grow and put on fat.

TREATMENT. "I fed him, washed his hands, face and feet twice a day, and brushed and combed his hair,--which he would try to do himself whenever he got hold of the brush or comb. He soon got to like all this.

TRAINING. "My next idea was to teach him to be strictly clean in his habits. It was my ambition to be able to have him upstairs in our house as an ordinary member of the household. I taught him first as a child is taught and handled. This took some time. At first I could not make him understand what we expected of him, even though I always petted him and gave him grapes (of which he was especially fond), but I think at first he imagined that this treatment was a punishment. At first, without other reasons, he would roll on the floor and shriek, but directly he understood what was expected of him he soon learned, and began to behave excellently.

"This training occupied quite six weeks. About February, 1919, we took him out of his cage, and allowed him the freedom of the house. Thereafter he would run upstairs to the bathroom of his own accord, turning the doork.n.o.b of whatever room he was in, and also opening the door of the bathroom.... He would get out of bed in the night by himself, go back to bed, and pull the blankets over himself quite neatly.

FOOD. "John's appet.i.te seemed to tire of foods very quickly. The only thing he stuck to was milk, which he liked best when warmed.

We began by giving him a quart a day, rising to three and one-half quarts a day. I found that he preferred to choose his own food, so I used to prepare for him several kinds, such as bananas, oranges, apples, grapes, raisins, currants, dates and any small fruits in season, such as raspberries or strawberries, _all of which he liked to have warmed!_

"These displays I placed on a high shelf in the kitchen, where he could get them with difficulty. I think that he thought himself very clever when he stole anything. He never would eat anything stale. He was extremely fond of fresh lemon jelly, but he never would touch it after the second day. He loved roses, _to eat_, more than anything. The more beautiful they were, the more he liked them, but he never would eat faded roses. He never cared much for nuts of any other kind than baked peanuts, save walnuts. I found that nuts gave him dreadful spells of indigestion.

USE OF TOOLS. "He knew what hammers and chisels were for, but for obvious reasons we never encouraged him in anything to do with carpentry. With cocoanuts he was very funny. He knew that they had to be broken, and he would try to break them on the floor. When he found he couldn't manage that, he would bring the nut to one of us and try to make us understand what he wished. If we gave him a hammer he would try to use it on the nut, and on not being able to manage that, he would give back to us both the hammer and the cocoanut.

GAMES AND PLAY. "We never taught him any tricks; he simply acquired knowledge himself. A game he was very fond of was to pretend he was blind, shutting his eyes very tightly, and running around the room knocking against tables and chairs... . We found that exercise was the thing he required to keep him in health, and my nephew used to give him plenty of that by playing hide and seek with him in the morning before breakfast, and in the evening before dinner,--up and down stairs, in and out of all the rooms.

He simply loved that game, and would giggle and laugh while being chased.... If he saw that a stranger was at all nervous about him, he loved running past him, and giving him a smack on the leg,--and you could see him grin as he did so.

"A thing he greatly enjoyed was to stand on the top rail of his bed and jump on the springs, head over heels, just like a child.

CAUTION. "He was very cautious. He would never run into a dark room without first turning on the light.

FEAR. "John seemed to realize danger for other people in high places, for if anyone looked out of a high window he always pushed them away if he were at the window himself, but if he was away from it he would run and pull them back... . He was very much afraid of full-grown sheep, cows and horses, but he loved colts, calves and lambs, proving to us that he recognized youth.

WOODS VS. FIELDS. "We found he did not like fields or open country, but he was very happy in a garden, or in woods... . He always liked nibbling twigs, and to eat the green buds of trees.

TABLE MANNERS. "His table manners were really very good. He always sat at the table, and whenever a meal was ready, would pull his own chair up to his place. He did not care to eat a great deal, but he especially liked to drink water out of a tumbler... . He was the least greedy of all the animals I have ever seen. He never would s.n.a.t.c.h anything, and always ate very slowly. He always drank a lot of water, which he would always get himself whenever he wanted it by turning on a tap. Strange to say, he always turned off the water when he had finished drinking.

PLAYING TO THE GALLERY. "John seemed to think that everyone was delighted to see him, and he would throw up the window whenever he was permitted. If he found the sash locked he would unfasten it, and when a big crowd had collected outside he would clap his chest and his hands. [Footnote: In the summer of 1920 a globe-trotter just arrived from England excitedly reported to me: "While driving along a street in London _I saw a live gorilla_ in the upper window of an apartment. It was a _real gorilla;_ and it clapped its hands at us as we looked! Now _what_ did it all mean?" Fortunately I was able to explain it.]

PUNISHMENT AND REPENTANCE. "We made one very great mistake with John. His cage was used as a punishment, with the result that we never could leave him there alone, for he would shriek all the time... . Now, a stick was the one thing that our gorilla would not stand from anyone, save Major Penny and myself. Presently we found out that the only way to deal with him was to tell him that he was very naughty, and push him away from us; when he would roll on the floor and cry, and be very-repentant, holding one's ankles, and putting his head on our feet.

AFFECTION FOR A CHILD. "He was especially fond of my little niece, three years old. John and she used to play together for hours, and he seemed to understand what she wanted him to do. If she ever cried, and her mother would not go and pick her up, John would always try and nip the mother, or give her a smack with the full weight of his hand, evidently thinking she was the cause of the child's tears.

A SENSE OF GOOD ORDER. "He loved to take everything out of a wastepaper basket and strew the contents all over the room, after which, when told to do so he would pick up everything and put it all back, but looking very bored all the while. If the basket was very full he would push it all down very carefully, to make room for more. He would always put things back when told to do so, such as books from a bookshelf or things from a table.

[Ill.u.s.tration caption: THE GORILLA WITH THE WONDERFUL MIND Owned by Major Rupert Penny, educated by Miss Alyse Cunningham, London, 1918-1921]

TWO CASES OF ORIGINAL THOUGHT. (1) "One day we were going out, for which I was sitting ready dressed, when John wished to sit in my lap. My sister, Mrs. Penny, said: 'Don't let him. He will spoil your dress.'

"As my dress happened to be a light one I pushed him away, and said, 'No!' He at once lay on the floor and cried just like a child, for about a minute. Then he rose, looked round the room, found a newspaper, went and picked it up, spread it on my lap and climbed up. This was quite the cleverest thing I ever saw him do.

_Even those who saw it said they would not have believed it had they not seen it themselves!_ Both my nephews, (Major Penny and Mr. E. C. Penny), his wife and my sister (Mrs. Penny) were in the room, and can testify to the correctness of the above record.

(2) "Another clever thing John did, although I suspect this was due more to instinct that to downright cleverness. A piece of filet beefsteak had just come from the butcher. Inasmuch as occasionally I gave him a small mouthful of raw beef, a small piece of the coa.r.s.er part of the steak was cut off, and I gave it to him. He tasted it, then gravely handed it back to me. Then he took my hand and put it on the finer part of the meat. From that I cut off a tiny piece, gave it to him, and he ate it. When my nephew came home he wouldn't believe it, so I tried it again, with the same result, except that then he did not even attempt to eat the coa.r.s.er meat."

Concerning Miss Cunningham's wonderful story, I wish to state that I believe all of it,--because there is no reason to do otherwise!

It sets a new mark in gorilla lore, and it lifts a curtain from an animal mind that previously was unknown, and very generally misunderstood.

To the Doubting Thomases who will doubt some portions of Miss Cunningham's story, let me cite, by way of caution, the following history:

When Du Chaillu discovered the gorilla, and came to America and England with his specimens to tell about it, he said that when a big gorilla is attacked and made angry it beats its breast, repeatedly, with its clenched fists. The wiseacres of that day solemnly shook their heads and said: "Oh, no! That can not be true. No ape ever did that. He is romancing!" But now we know that this breast-beating and chest-clapping habit is to a gorilla a common-place performance, even in captivity.

Sometimes there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in all our philosophy.

XI

THE MIND OF THE ELEPHANT

It was in the jungles of the Animallai Hills of southern India that I first became impressed by the mental capacity of the Indian elephant. I saw many wild herds. I saw elephants at work, and at one period I lived in a timber camp, consisting of working elephants and mahouts. I saw a shrewd young elephant-driver soundly flogged for stealing an elephant, farming it out to a native timber contractor for four days, and then elaborately pretending that the animal had been "lost." Later on I saw elephant performances in the "Greatest Show on Earth" and elsewhere, and for eighteen years I have been chief mourner over the idiosyncrasies of Gunda and Alice. If I do not now know something about elephants, then my own case of animal intelligence is indeed hopeless.

To me it seems that the only thing necessary to establish the elephant as an animal of remarkable intellect and power of original reasoning is to set forth the unadorned facts that lie ready to hand.

Cuvier recorded the opinion that in sagacity the elephant in no way excels the dog and some other species of carnivora. Sir Emerson Tennent, even after some study of the elephant, was disposed to award the palm for intelligence to the dog, but only "from the higher degree of development consequent on his more intimate domestication and a.s.sociation with man." In the mind of G. P. Sanderson we fear that familiarity with the elephant bred a measure of contempt; and this seems very strange. He says:

"Its reasoning faculties are undoubtedly far below those of the dog, and possibly of other animals; and in matters beyond its daily experience it evinces no special discernment."

To me it seems that all three of those opinions are off the target. The dog is not a wild, untrammeled animal; and neither dogs, cats nor savage men evince any special discernment "beyond the range of their daily experience." Moreover, there are some millions of tame men of whom the same may be said with entire safety.

Very often the question is asked: "Is the African elephant equal in intelligence and training capacity to the Indian species?"

To this we must answer: Not proven. We do not know. The African species never has been tried out on the same long and wide basis as the Indian. Many individual African elephants, very intelligent, have been trained, successfully, and have given good accounts of themselves. For my own part I am absolutely sure that when taken in hand at the same age, and trained on the same basis as the Indian species, the African elephant will be found mentally quite the equal of the Indian, and just as available for work or performances.

No negro tribe really likes to handle elephants and train them.