ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
NOTES ON THE 
BIRTH OF 
105 
A CHIMPANZEE 
By W. Rew Brarr, D. V. S. 
HE scarcity, or nearly total absence, of any 
a reliable information relating to the breed- 
ing of anthropoid apes,. justifies us in re- 
cording the following notes and observations, 
dealing with the birth of a chimpanzee baby 
which took place on July 14, 1920, in the Pri- 
mate House of the New York Zoological Park. 
So far as known that event constitutes the rec- 
ord of the second chimpanzee ever born in 
captivity. 
Dr. Louis Montane, Professor of Anthropol- 
ogy at the University of Havana, Cuba, records 
the birth of a chimpanzee, on April 27, 1915, at 
the home of Senora Rosalie Abreu, owner of the 
“Quinta Palatino” estate at Havana, Cuba. The 
breeding of a chimpanzee by Senora Abreu rep- 
resents the first successful attempt at breeding 
champanzees in captivity, an event that has 
attracted world wide interest among anthropolo- 
gists and scientists, generally. Judging from 
Dr. Montane’s description of the seclusion pre- 
vailing upon the estate of Mrs. Abreu, condi- 
tions must have closely approximated the ideal 
for the breeding of chimpanzees. 
Studies in infant psychology are of compara- 
tively recent date, few in number, and in most 
instances very incomplete; while, as regards 
animals lower in the scale, such investigations 
are still more imperfect. The science of com- 
parative psychology is a very youthful one, so 
that anyone who contributes a single fact will 
be a real friend to its progress. 
It is for this reason principally that these 
notes, however meager and incomplete, are pub- 
lished with the hope that they may add some- 
thing to the scanty literature of a subject that 
is of so much concern to those who are re- 
sponsible for the care of anthropoid apes in 
confinement. 
In a zoological garden, the list of births 
among the mammals affords a very good index 
of the general health and condition of the col- 
lections. A long and varied list of births is 
one of the best indications that a healthy en- 
vironment has been established. 
The breeding of animals, aside from the 
hoofed stock, never has been with us an im- 
portant factor, chiefly for the reason that the 
demands for exhibition and educational pur- 
poses are so imperative that all other conditions 
have been of secondary consideration. The suc- 
cessful breeding and rearing of captive wild 
animals on any considerable scale requires spec- 
ial provisions to afford the seclusion and en- 
larged quarters that would insure satisfactory 
offspring. The providing of quiet, comfortable 
and sanitary quarters with proper isolation can- 
not be satisfactorily arranged in a Park like 
ours, where the animals, and especially the 
higher apes, must be constantly on exhibition to 
thousands of visitors each day. When one re- 
members these conditions, and the absence of the 
many factors deemed necessary for the propa- 
gation of offspring among the rarer species of 
our wild animals, the fact that we have succeeded 
in breeding a chimpanzee should be considered 
the more noteworthy. In addition to the chim- 
panzee we have successfully bred and reared the 
Japanese red-raced monkey, long armed baboon, 
macque and lemur. 
On account of their undoubted physical and 
mental resemblances to man, the study of the 
higher apes and monkeys, is naturally of the 
greatest interest to the student of comparative 
psychology, as well as to the ordinary observer 
whose only plea to science is his love of animals. 
The higher in the scale the animal that is 
studied, the nearer we are approaching on the 
whole, to man. 
Anyone who will watch the countenance of an 
ape or monkey when he feels himself insulted, 
and again when he is fondled by his keeper, will 
be forced to admit that the changes of expression 
of the features, and the gestures are almost as 
expressive as those of man. 
There is a striking difference between the dis- 
positions of the chimpanzee and orang-utan, the 
most intelligent of the apes. The temperment 
of the chimpanzee is of the nervous or stubborn 
type, but its mind is more alert and prompt in 
action than that of the orang. The chimpanzee 
while showing great affection for his keepers 
or those frequently about him, generally resents 
being handled by strangers. 
With a fair degree of precision, the chim- 
panzee exercises the faculty of reason on prob- 
lems that concern his comfort and safety. He 
is quick to interpret motives, to discern intents, 
and is a rare judge of character. Ordinarily 
he is docile, and quickly learns anything that 
lies within the range of his mental plane. 
The appearance of dejections in a chimpanzee 
when in poor health, is as plain and almost as 
pathetic as in the case of a child. This state of 
