ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 

 BULLETIN 



PuhJ ished hij the New York Zoological Society 



Vol. XVIII 



JANUARY. 1915 



Number 1 



(iORILLAS. PAST AND PRESENT 



By \\ ILLIAM T. HoKNADAY. 



UNDOUBTEDLY, the highest desire of 

 every zoological garden and i)ark. and of 

 every showman, is to own and exhibit a 

 real, live gorilla of a size sufficiently large to 

 compel both admiration and awe. The human 

 mind loves to contemplate, with a suitable inter- 

 vention of bars, the apes that stand nearest to 

 man, and at the same time human nerve-centers 

 love to be racked and thrilled by a beast that 

 is both ugly and fearsome. 



Even after all has been said about the gorilla 

 that the devotees of Truth can say. The half 

 hath not been told. The life history of that 

 species is a black mystery. Even the geograph- 

 ical range of the genus Gorilla is definable only 

 in general terms. If we are moved to accept 

 some rather cloudy, ancient history', we may be- 

 lieve that Hanno, the Carthaginian, on his fa- 

 mous but mysterious voyage to Fernando Po. 

 something like .5.50 B. C. discovered the gorilla, 

 and first made note of its existence. But it may 

 have been a chimpanzee ; and i)robahly it was ; 

 and a captive chimi)anzee. at that. We think 

 there is small chance th.it H.mno ever saw a 

 gorilla, alive or dead. 



A gorilla skull was discovered in 18K5 by 

 the Rev. Dr. J. L. Wilson. The gorilla as a 

 living animal was discovered by Paul B. Du 

 Chaillu. in 1856. and by him properly and 

 painstakingly exploited in his book, "Adven- 

 tures in Equatorial Africa." in 1861. The real 

 discovery of this remarkable species occurred 

 on August 2i, 1856, near an abandoned native 

 village, on the top of a small mountain range 

 at an elevation estimated at 5.000 feet, drained 

 by the Ntambounay River, which flows into the 

 Muni River, sixty miles north of the Equator, 

 opposite Corisco Island. The precise spot is 

 seventv miles north of the Equator, and 115 



miles from the coast; and it was not on the 

 Gaboon River at all. 



Skulls and science are all very well ; but for 

 our knowledge of the gorilla we owe most to 

 Paul Du Chaillu and his popular book, "Equa- 

 torial Africa." It was through that hair-rais- 

 ing and altogether masterful presentation that 

 the greatest and most fearsome of the great 

 apes burst upon an astonished world. It is a 

 matter of history that when the doughty ex- 

 l)lorer landed in America with a priceless col- 

 lection of gorilla skins and skeletons, expect- 

 ing .and deserving an ovation, he was bitterly 

 disappointed. At that time American zoology 

 was still in its swaddling clothes. There were 

 few museums of any kind, and few persons 

 who cared about ape skins or ape stories from 

 far distant Africa. As a result, Du Chaillu 

 resentfully gathered up his collection and took 

 it over to England, where it was better appreci- 

 ated. 



(ioing or coming, the gorilla is a most elusive 

 .inimal. All the observations of living speci- 

 mens that ever have been made, added together 

 (but not duplicated), would not make one small 

 book. Only one gorilla ever has lived in cap- 

 tivity long enough to establish a record and 

 constitute a case worth while. That unique in- 

 stance of longevity occurred in Breslau; but 

 if we were as careful to avoid all references to 

 German zoological gardens as all German 

 writers are to avoid all references to the New 

 York Zoological Park, we never would mention 

 it ! Strange to say, the Breslau gorilla is so 

 little known in literature and among mammal- 

 ogists that even the latest and largest work 

 on the primates does not even mention it by 

 title : but it lived in cajitivity seven years ! 



