ASCHEMEIER — BEDS OF GORILLA AND CHIMPANZEE 
177 
in a tree, and these proved to be chimpanzees preparing a bed. I 
was very anxious to see more of the work, but the animals unfortu- 
nately saw us and hastily started to descend. At least one of them, 
I was sure, was not doing any of the work and the impression I got 
was that it was ^‘bossing the job.^^ This one was the last of the three 
to start down the tree, and as I was able to shoot it, I found it to be 
a male of the type known to the natives as “koola-kamba.^^ 
The chimpanzee beds later discovered were all very much of the 
style of the first ones examined. The chimpanzees were usually up 
and about at the break of day, and were in their beds, or near them, 
as a rule, by sundown or shortly after. 
The beds of the gorilla I found to be much more variable. Some 
were similar to those of the chimpanzee, but the natives always knew 
the difference, and if the nest had been used the night before I myself 
could easily tell what the occupants were. The gorilla has an odor 
almost as characteristic and prominent as its teriffic yell. To describe 
this odor is quite impossible. It is pungent, and smells a bit like 
rubber. Often while walking along we would suddenly detect the 
odor of the gorilla, and on investigation find where the animals had 
passed or had stopped to eat. 
Another style of the gorilla bed is an oblong affair on the ground, 
composed of bushes, grasses, and ferns. While it is not made as a 
man would make a similar bed, still, on seeing it, one could not say 
that it was not a good job. Still another type of the gorilla sleeping 
quarters is that where nests are made by bending and breaking saplings 
so that three or four will come together at the tops, thus forming a 
fair bed. The trees are not broken off entirely, but, about midway, 
just enough so they will stay down. One of the most interesting 
features about the beds of the gorilla is that they are made in close 
proximity to streams of water, where mosquitoes and insects of many 
kinds are particularly abundant. Perhaps the gorilla knows that 
other dwellers of the jungle will not stay in such places. 
The natives tell me that some old male gorillas stay by themselves, 
and that these solitary males are the ones that use the oblong ground 
nests and the beds formed by the bent over saplings. The tree nests 
are used by the gorilla families; the old female together with the young 
reposes in the tree and the old male of the family sits at the base with 
his back leaning against it, on the lookout for his enemy the leopard. 
This is one of the habits that shows the great courage of the gorilla; 
I was told of one encounter, to the death of both, between a gorilla 
