Gorillas & Chimpanzees

CHAPTER XV

HABITS OF THE GORILLA

A study of the habits of the gorilla in a wild state is attended with much difficulty, but the results that I obtained during a sojourn of one year among them are an ample reward for the efforts made. In a state of captivity the habits of animals are made to conform in a measure to their surroundings, and since those are different many of their habits differ also. Some are foregone, others modified, and new ones acquired, therefore we cannot know with certainty what the animal was in a state of nature. In the social life of the gorilla there are a few things perhaps that differ very much from that of the chimpanzee, but there are some that do in a certain degree. From the native accounts of the modes of life of these two apes, there would appear to be a much greater difference than a systematic study of them reveals; but the native version of things frequently has a germ of truth which may serve as a clue to the facts in the case; and while we cannot rely upon the tales they relate in all details, we can forgive the mendacity and make use of the suggestion they furnish.

It is certain that the gorilla is polygamous in habit, and it is probable that he has an incipient idea of government. Within certain limits he has a faint perception of order and justice, if not of right and wrong. I do not mean to ascribe to him the highest attributes of man, or exalt him above the plane to which his faculties assign him; but there are reasons to justify the belief that he occupies a higher social and mental sphere than other animals, except the chimpanzee.

In the beginning of his career, in independent life, the gorilla selects a wife with whom he appears to sustain the conjugal relations thereafter, and preserves a certain degree of marital fidelity. From time to time he adopts a new wife, but does not discard the old one; in this manner he gathers around him a numerous family, consisting of his wives and their children. Each mother nurses and cares for her own young, but all of them grow up together as the children of one family. There is no doubt that the mother sometimes corrects and sometimes chastises her young, which suggests a vague idea of propriety. The father exercises the function of patriarch in the sense of a ruler, and the natives call him ikomba njina, which means gorilla king. To him the others all show a certain amount of deference. Whether this is due to fear or to respect, however, is not certain, but here is at least the first principle of dignity.

The gorilla family, consisting of this one adult male and a number of females and their young, are within themselves a nation. There do not appear to be any social relations between different families, but within the same household there is apparent harmony.

The gorilla is nomadic, and rarely ever spends two nights in the same place. Each family roams about in the bush from place to place in search of food, and wherever they may be when night comes on they select a place to sleep and retire. The largest family of gorillas that I have ever heard of was estimated to contain twenty members. But the usual number is not more than ten or twelve. The chimpanzee appears to go in larger groups than these, and sometimes in a single group two or even three adult males have been seen. When the young gorilla approaches the adult state, he leaves the family group, finds himself a mate, and sets out in the world for himself. I observed that, as a rule, when one gorilla was seen alone in the forest it was usually a young male, but nearly grown; it is probable that he was then in search of a wife. At other times two only are seen together, and in this event they are usually a pair of male and female, and generally young. Again, it sometimes occurs that three adults are seen with two or three children; often one of the children two or three years old, and the others a year younger, which would indicate that the male had had one of his wives much longer than the other. In large families young ones of all ages, from one year old to five or six years old, are seen; but the fact is plain that the older children are much fewer in number. I have once seen a large female with her babe, quite alone; whether she lived alone or was only absent for the moment I cannot tell.

The king gorilla does not provide food for his family, but, on the contrary, it is said they provide for him. I have been informed on two occasions, from different sources, that the king gorilla has been seen sitting quietly under the shade of a tree, eating, while the others collected and brought to him the food. I have never witnessed such a scene myself, but it does not seem probable that the same story would have come from two sources unless there was some foundation for it.

In the matter of government, the gorilla appears to be somewhat more advanced than most animals. He leads the others on the march, and selects their feeding grounds and places to sleep; he breaks camp, and the others all obey him in these respects. Other animals that travel in groups do the same thing; but in addition to this, the natives aver that the gorillas from time to time hold palavers or a rude form of court or council in the jungle. On these occasions, it is said the king presides; that he sits alone in the centre, while the others stand or sit in a rough semicircle about him, and talk in an excited manner. Sometimes the whole of them are talking at once, but what it means or alludes to no native undertakes to say, except that it has the nature of a quarrel. To what extent the king gorilla exercises the judicial function is a matter of grave doubt, but there appears to be some real ground for the story.

As to the succession of the kingship there is no certainty, but the facts point to the belief that on the death of the king, if there be an adult male he assumes the royal prerogative, otherwise the family disbands, and they are absorbed by or attached to other families. Whether this new leader is elected in the manner that other animals appoint a leader, or assumes it by reason of his age, cannot be said; but there is no doubt that in many instances families remain intact for a time after the death of their leader.

It has been said by many that the gorilla builds a rude hut or shelter for himself and family, but I have found no evidence that such is true. The natives declare that he does so, and some white men affirm the same; but during my travels through their habitat, I offered liberal and frequent rewards to any native who would show me one of these specimens of simian architecture, but I was never able to find any trace of one made or occupied by any ape. They may sometimes, and doubtless do, take shelter from the tornadoes, but it is always under some fallen tree or cluster of broad leaves, and there is nothing to show that they arrange any part of them. So far as I could find, there is no proof that any gorilla ever put two sticks together with the idea of shelter. As to his throwing sticks or stones at an enemy, I have found nothing to verify it; in my opinion, it is a mere freak of fancy.

The current opinion or idea that a gorilla will attack a man without being provoked to it, is an error. He is shy and timid, and shrinks alike from man and other large animals. I have no doubt that when he is in a rage he is both fierce and powerful, but his ferocity and strength are rated above their true value. In combat he is a stubborn foe no doubt, but no one that I have met has ever seen him thus engaged.

The mode of attack as described by many travellers is a mere theory. It is said in this act he walks erect, beats with fury on his breast, roars and yells, and in this manner seizes his adversary, tears open his breast, and drinks the blood. I have never seen a large gorilla in the act of assault. During the time of my stay in the jungle I had a young gorilla in captivity, and I made use of him in studying the habits of his race. I kept him tied with a long line which allowed him room to play and climb, and at the same time prevented him from escaping into the forest, which he always tried to do the instant he was released. I released him frequently for the purpose of watching his mode of attack when recaptured. While being pursued he rarely looked back, but when overtaken he invariably assailed his captor. This gave me an opportunity of seeing his method of attack, in which he displayed both skill and judgment. As my boy would approach him, he would calmly turn with one side to the foe and, without facing the boy, would roll his eyes in such a manner as to see him and at the same time conceal his purpose. When the boy came within reach, the gorilla would grasp him with a thrust of the arm to one side and slightly backward. When he had seized his adversary by the leg, he would instantly swing the other arm round with a long sweep and strike the boy a hard blow; then he began to use his teeth. He seemed to depend more upon the blow than the grasp, but the latter served to hold the object of attack within reach; in every case he kept one arm and one leg in reserve until he had seized his adversary. It is true that these attacks were made upon an enemy in pursuit, but his mode appeared to be a normal one; he could strike a severe blow, and did not show any sign of tearing or scratching his opponent. In these attacks he made no sound of any kind. I do not pretend to say that other gorillas do not scream or tear their victims, but I take it that the habits of the young are much, if not quite, the same as those of their parents, and from a study of this specimen I am forced to modify many opinions imbibed from reading or from pictures and specimens which I have seen. Many of them represent the gorilla in absurd and sometimes impossible attitudes. They certainly do not represent him as I have seen him in his native wilds.

When the chimpanzee attacks, so far as I have seen among my own specimens, he approaches his enemy and strikes with both hands, one slightly in advance of the other. After striking a few blows, he will grasp his opponent and use his teeth, then shoving him away again uses his hands, and usually, on beginning the attack, accompanies the assault with a loud, piercing scream. Neither he nor the gorilla closes the hand to strike, nor uses any weapon except the hands and teeth. I had another young female gorilla for a short time as a subject for study. Her mode of attack appeared to be the same, but she was too large to risk in such experiments.

I have read and heard descriptions of the sounds made by the gorilla, but nothing ever conveyed to my mind an adequate idea of their true nature, until I heard them myself within a few hundred feet of my cage in the dead of night. By some it has been called roaring, and by others howling; but it is neither truly a roar nor a howl. They utter a peculiar combination of sounds, beginning in a low, smooth tone, which rapidly increases in pitch and frequency, until it becomes a terrific scream. The first part of the series is quite within the scope of the human voice, but as it rises in pitch and increases in volume it passes far beyond the reach of the human lungs. The first sound of the series and each alternate sound is made by expiration, while the intermediate ones appear to be by inspiration, but how it is accomplished is difficult to say. The sound as a whole resembles the braying of an ass, except the notes are shorter, the climax higher, and the sound is louder. A gorilla does not yell in this manner every night, but when he does so it is usually between two and five o'clock in the morning; I have never heard the sound during the day nor in the early part of the night. When he thus screams, he repeats the series from ten to twenty times, at intervals of one or two minutes each. I know of nothing in the way of vocal sounds that can inspire such terror as the voice of the gorilla. It can be heard over a distance of three or four miles. I could assign no definite meaning to it unless it was intended to alarm some intruder that came too near.

One morning between three and four o'clock I heard two of them screaming at the same time. I do not mean to say at the same instant, but at intervals during the same period of time. One of them was within about a third of a mile of me, and the other in another direction perhaps a mile away. The points we occupied respectively formed a scalene triangle. The sounds did not appear to have any reference to each other. Sometimes they would alternate, and at other times they would interrupt each other. They were both made by giants of their kind, and every leaf in the forest vibrated with the sound. This was during the latter part of May. They do scream in this way from time to time throughout the year, but it is most frequent and violent during February and March.

This wild screaming is sometimes accompanied by a peculiar beating sound. It has been described by travellers, and currently believed to be made by the animal beating with his hands upon his breast; but such is not the case. It is very certain that the sound cannot be made by that means. The quality of the sound shows that such cannot be the means employed. I have heard this beating several times, and have paid marked attention to its character. At a great distance it would be difficult to discern the exact quality; but on one occasion, while stopping over-night in a native town, I was aroused from sleep by a gorilla screaming and beating within a few hundred yards. I put on my boots, took my rifle, and cautiously crossed the open ground between the village and the forest. This brought me within about two hundred yards of the animal. The moon was faintly shining, but I could not see the beast, and I had no desire to approach nearer at such a time, but I heard distinctly every stroke. I believe the sound was made by beating upon a log or piece of dead wood. He was beating with both hands, the strokes alternating with great rapidity, and not unlike the manner in which the natives beat a drum, except that the hand made the same number of strokes, and the strokes were in a constant series, rising and falling from very soft to very loud, and vice versâ. A number of these runs followed one another during the time the voice continued. Between the first and second strokes the interval was slightly longer than that between the second and third, and so on through the scale. As the beating increased in loudness the interval shortened in an inverse degree, while in descending the scale the intervals lengthened as the beating softened, and the author of the sound was conscious of this fact. I could trace no relation in time or harmony between the sound of the voice and the beating, except that they began at the same time and ended at the same time. The same series of vocal sounds was repeated each time, beginning on the low note and ending on the highest note or pitch in each case, while the rise and fall of the series of the beaten sounds was not measured by the duration of the voice. The series each time began with a soft note, but ended at any part of the scale at which the voice ceased, and was not the same in every case.

I have no doubt that the gorilla beats upon his breast: he has been seen to do so in captivity, but the sounds described above were not so made. Since the gorilla makes these sounds only at night, it is not probable that any man ever saw him in the act. It does not require a delicate sense of hearing to distinguish a sound made by beating the breast from that of dead wood or other similar substance.

I have attributed the above sound to the gorilla, because I have been assured by many white men and scores of natives that it was made by him; but since my return from Africa I have had time to consider and digest certain facts tabulated on that trip, and as a result I am led to doubt whether this sound is made by the gorilla or not. There are good reasons to believe that it is made by the chimpanzee instead, and I shall state them.

I observed that my own chimpanzees made this sound exactly the same as that I heard in the forest, except that it was less in volume, which was due to their age. I could induce them at any time to make the sound, and frequently did so in order to study it. On my arrival in New York I found that Chico, the big chimpanzee belonging to Mr. Bailey, frequently made the same sound at night. It was said to be so loud and piercing that it fairly shook the stately walls of Madison Square Garden. From reading the description given by the late Professor Romanes of the sound made by "Sally" in the London Gardens, it appears to be the same sound.

It is well known to the natives that the chimpanzees beat on some sonorous body, which they call a drum. Four years ago I called attention to the habit of the two chimpanzees in the Cincinnati Gardens. They frequently indulged in beating upon the floor of their cage with their knuckles. This was done chiefly by the male. The late E. J. Glave described to me the same thing, as being done by the chimpanzees in the Middle Congo basin.

It is not probable that two animals of different genera utter the same exact sound, and this is more especially true of a sound that is complex or prolonged. Neither is it likely that the two would have a common habit, such as beating on any sonorous body. Since it is certain that one of these apes does make the sound described, it is more than probable that the other does not. The same logic applies to the beating.

Many things that are known of the chimpanzee are taken for granted in the gorilla, but it is erroneous to suppose that in such habits as these they would be identical. In some cases I have been able to prove quite conclusively that the chimpanzee alone did certain things which were ascribed to the gorilla.

In view of these facts alone, I am inclined to believe that after all, the sound described is made by the chimpanzee and not by the gorilla.

Another case in which the gorilla is portrayed is wrong. The female gorilla is represented as carrying her young clinging to her waist. I have seen the mother in the forest with her young mounted upon her back, with its arms around her neck and its feet hooked in her armpits. I have never seen the male carry the young, but in a number of specimens of advanced age I have seen a mark upon the back and sides which indicates that he does so. It is in the same place that the young rest upon the back of the mother. In form it is like an inverted Y, with the base resting on the neck and the prongs reaching under the arms. This mark is not one of nature, but appears to be the imprint of something carried there. In a few specimens the hair is worn off until the skin is almost bare. The prongs are more worn than the stem of the figure, which is due to the fact that more weight is borne upon those parts than elsewhere. I do not assert that such is the cause, but it is worthy of note that such is the fact.

The gorilla is averse to human society. He is morose and sullen in captivity. He frets and pines for his liberty. His face appears to be incapable of expressing anything like a smile, but when in repose it is not repugnant. In anger his visage depicts the savage instincts of his nature. The one which lived with me for a time in the forest was a sober, solemn, stoical creature, and nothing could arouse in him a spirit of mirth. The only pastime he indulged in was turning somersaults. Almost every day, at intervals of an hour or so, he would stand up for a moment, then put his head upon the ground, turn over like a boy, rise to his feet again, and look at me as if expecting my applause. He would frequently repeat this act a dozen times or more, but never smiled or evinced any sign of pleasure. He was selfish, cruel, vindictive, and retiring.

One peculiar habit of the gorilla, both wild and in captivity, is that of relaxing the lower lip when in repose. They drop the lid until a small red line appears across the mouth from side to side. It is not done when in a sullen mood, but when perplexed or in a deep study.

Another constant habit is to protrude the end of the tongue between the lips, until it is about even with the outer edge of them. The end of the tongue is somewhat more blunted than that of the human. This habit is so frequent with the young gorilla that it would appear to have some meaning, but I cannot suggest what it is.

The habit of the gorilla, in sleeping, is to lie upon the back or side, with one or both arms placed under the head as a pillow. He cannot sleep on a perch, as we have already noted, but lies upon the ground at night. I had once pointed out to me the place at the base of a large tree where a school of them had slept the night before. One imprint was quite distinct. The stories told about the king gorilla placing his family in a tree while he sits on watch at the base, is another case of supposition.

The food of the gorilla is not confined to plants and fruits. They are fond of meat, and eat it either raw or cooked. They secure a small supply by catching rodents of various kinds, lizards and toads; they are also known to rob the nests of birds of the eggs, and of the young. A native once pointed out to me the quills and bones of a porcupine which he said had been left by a gorilla who had eaten the carcass, and he said that it was not at all rare for them to do so. The fruits and plants they live upon chiefly are acidulous in taste, and some of them are bitter. They often eat the fruit of the plantain, but prefer the stalk, which they twist and break open and eat the succulent heart of the plant. They do the same with the batuna, which grows all through the forest. The fruit of this plant is a red pod filled with seeds imbedded in a soft pulp, it is slightly acidulate and astringent. The wild mangrove which forms a staple article of food for the chimpanzee is rarely, if ever, touched by the gorilla, and the same is true of many other plants and fruits. I once saw a gorilla try to seize a dog, but whether it was for the purpose of eating the flesh or not I cannot say. One, however, did catch and devour a small dog on board the steamer ship, while on a voyage home from Africa. Both belonged to Captain Button, who assured me of the fact. They have no fixed hours for eating, but usually do so in the early morning or late afternoon. I have, in a few instances, seen them refuse meat. They are perhaps less devoted to eating flesh than the chimpanzee.

In the act of drinking, the gorilla will take a cup, place the rim in his mouth and drink like a human being. He does this without being taught, while the chimpanzee prefers to put both lips in the vessel. I have never known one that would drink beer, spirits, coffee or soup, but their drink is limited to milk or water, while the chimpanzee drinks beer and other things as well.

CHAPTER XVI

OTHELLO AND OTHER GORILLAS

While I was living in my cage in the jungle I secured a young gorilla, to whom I gave the name "Othello." He was about one year old, strong, hardy and robust. I found him to be a fine subject for study, and made the best use of him for that purpose. I have elsewhere described his character, but his illness and death are matters of profound interest.

At noon on the day of his decease he was quite well and in fine humour. He was turning somersaults and playing like a child with my native boy. In his play he evinced a certain interest, and his actions indicated that it gave him pleasure, but his face never once betrayed the fact. It was amusing to see him with the actions of a romping child and the face of a cynic.

He was supplied with plenty of native food, had a good appetite, and ate with a relish. Just after noon I sent the boy on an errand, and he was expected to return about night. Near the middle of the afternoon I observed that Othello was ill; he declined to eat or drink, and lay on his back on the ground, with his arms under his head as a pillow. I tried to induce him to walk with me, to play, or to sit up, but he refused to do so. By four o'clock he was very ill. He rolled from side to side, and groaned as if in pain. He kept one hand upon his stomach, where the pain appeared to be located. He displayed all the symptoms of gastric poisoning, and I have reason to believe now that the boy had given him poison. I should regret to foster this suspicion against an innocent person, but it is based upon certain facts that I have learned since that time.