OTHER CHIMPANZEES 



163 



In order to justify my doubts upon the subject of 

 her age, I may state that Chico was only ten years 

 of age when he died, but had reached the aduh 

 period ; and as males do not reach that state sooner 

 than the females of any genus of the primates, it is 

 not probable that he was mature at ten, while she 

 was not so until twelve. In the next place, her 

 captors claim to have seen her within a few hours 

 after her birth, and that they watched her and her 

 mother from time to time until she was one year old, 

 when they killed the mother and captured the babe. 

 The claim is absurd. These apes are nomadic in 

 habit, and are rarely ever seen in the same place. 

 They claim that she was born on January 19, but from 

 what I know of these apes that is not their season of 

 bearing, and I doubt if any of them were ever born 

 during that month. Again, it is claimed that she 

 was captured by Portuguese explorers in the Congo, 

 but the Portuguese do not possess any territory 

 along that river in which these apes are ever found. 

 They claim the territory around Kabenda, which 

 would indicate that she came from the Loango 

 Valley instead of the Congo, but the cupidity of the 

 average Portuguese would never allow anything to 

 go at liberty for a year if it could be sold before that 

 time. 



Johanna is accredited with a great deal of intelli- 

 gence ; but I do not regard her as being above the 

 average of her race. Since the death of her com- 

 panion, Chico, she has received the sole attention of 

 her keeper, and since that time has been taught a 



