ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2438, 8 June 1922, Page 3

ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE

Of late years science has been more and more eager to know in intimate detail the habits and family life of the gorillas. These huge and marvellously powerful and highly intelligent relatives of mankind bear a close relationship to civilised man, and offer many perplexing problems which anthropologists are extremely desirous of studying. Bui of all the creatures on the face of this tailii. science knnv..- least, about the gorilla. These great anthropoid apes live in the midst of African wildernesses, in a comparatively small area of almost impenetrable jungle. Sc:: nee has been able to gather little trustworthy information from tin' natives who live in the vicinity of the apes. The savages are in terror of the huge creatures and prefer to see and know as little as possible about them. When scientists push their way through to the edge of the gorilla country, l hey find themselves unable to get much more than distant views and an occasional shot at a passing gorilla. Other animals can be captured, and' held in captivity for observation and experiment. But nobody has ever succeeded in capturing a. fully grown gorilla ‘alive, and even the baby gorillas which have been brought safely out of ihe jungle alive have never lived long in captivity.

And now the American Museum of National History has undertaken to supply science with the in forma-, lion it lacks, says an American paper. Several months ago, an expedition of half a dozen or more, under tlie leadership of Carl E. Akeley, a scientist and big-gamo hunter, was organised and stmt oui into the African jungle. The expedition was especially and peculiarly equipped to 'thoroughly cover everything of interest and scientific importance in regard to man’s gigantic African relatives. How little we know about gorillas is proved by the intense interest excited bv\the young gorilla, John Daniel, last spring. He was four and a half years old, and was the first gorilla to live to that age in captivity. He displayed most remarkable intelligence and human ways when exhibited in the Ringling Brothers’ circus. He sat down at table, and ate like a well-behaved boy, cleaned up his (dates, and made his own bed, but just when scientists were beginning to learn new fads about living gorillas, John Daniel died. The most interesting observation from John Daniel’s remains was an explanation why the gorillas cannot talk like a. man. Beneath the tongue op Daniel the muscles were divided into some five unconnected groups. In man the muscles are spread out like a fan, with infinite numbers of small fibres, by which the tongue can move with great rapidity, and utter every word that makes up language—ns many ns 170 words per minute. The ape can only scream, squeak, and howl. Of his method of communication with his mates we have little knowledge, but; there is reason to believe that he can express more by his noises than other animals.