140 ROBERT M. YERKES 



of at least one species of orang utan, and in addition to these 

 important assets, it presents the advantages of (a) a wholly 

 suitable climate and food supply for monkeys and apes; and 

 (b) climatic conditions for investigators which, I am informed 

 by scientific friends, are nearly ideal. For investigators the 

 most serious disadvantage here, as in all other parts of the East, 

 would be the isolation from other scientific work and workers. 



The possibilities of Central America I considered several 3^ears 

 ago when it seemicd to me possible that work might profitably 

 be done with mionkeys and apes on the Canal Zone. The advan- 

 tages are (a) a climate which promises fairly well for the animals; 

 and (b) reasonable accessibility from the United States. The 

 disadvantages are (a) a far from ideal climiate for long con- 

 tinued scientific work; and (b) an environment which from the 

 cultural and scientific point of view leaves much to be desired. 



Were a permanent psycho-biological station for the study of 

 the primates to be established in southern California, it would, 

 even though wholly satisfactory conditions for the breeding, 

 rearing, and studying of the animals were maintained, fu-nish 

 more or less inadequate opportunity for the observation of the 

 animals under free, natural conditions. It would therefore be 

 necessary to supplement the work of such a station by field 

 work in Borneo, Sumatra, Africa, India, South America, and 

 such other regions as the species of organism under considera- 

 tion happen to inhabit. 



Considering equally the needs of the experimenter and the 

 demands of the animals, it seems to me reasonable to conclude 

 that southern California should be definitely proved unsuitable 

 before a more distant site were selected. For the information 

 which I have been able to accumulate convinces me that .it 

 would in all probability be possible successfully to breed and 

 keep the primates there, and it is perfectly clear that in such 

 event the output of a station would be enormously greater 

 because of the more favorable conditions for research than in 

 any tropical region or in a more isolated location. 



Assuming that satisfactory provision in the shape of a scien- 

 tific establishment for the study of the primates in their rela- 

 tions to man were available, the following program might be 

 followed: (1) Systematic and continuous studies of important 

 forms of individual behavior, of social relations, and of mind; 



