Gorillas & Chimpanzees

by R. L. Garner

The king gorilla does not provide food for his family, but, on the contrary, it is said they provide for him. I have been informed on two occasions, from different sources, that the king gorilla has been seen sitting quietly under the shade of a tree, eating, while the others collected and brought to him the food. I have never witnessed such a scene myself, but it does not seem probable that the same story would have come from two sources unless there was some foundation for it.

In the matter of government, the gorilla appears to be somewhat more advanced than most animals. He leads the others on the march, and selects their feeding grounds and places to sleep; he breaks camp, and the others all obey him in these respects. Other animals that travel in groups do the same thing; but in addition to this, the natives aver that the gorillas from time to time hold palavers or a rude form of court or council in the jungle. On these occasions, it is said the king presides; that he sits alone in the centre, while the others stand or sit in a rough semicircle about him, and talk in an excited manner. Sometimes the whole of them are talking at once, but what it means or alludes to no native undertakes to say, except that it has the nature of a quarrel. To what extent the king gorilla exercises the judicial function is a matter of grave doubt, but there appears to be some real ground for the story.

As to the succession of the kingship there is no certainty, but the facts point to the belief that on the death of the king, if there be an adult male he assumes the royal prerogative, otherwise the family disbands, and they are absorbed by or attached to other families. Whether this new leader is elected in the manner that other animals appoint a leader, or assumes it by reason of his age, cannot be said; but there is no doubt that in many instances families remain intact for a time after the death of their leader.

It has been said by many that the gorilla builds a rude hut or shelter for himself and family, but I have found no evidence that such is true. The natives declare that he does so, and some white men affirm the same; but during my travels through their habitat, I offered liberal and frequent rewards to any native who would show me one of these specimens of simian architecture, but I was never able to find any trace of one made or occupied by any ape. They may sometimes, and doubtless do, take shelter from the tornadoes, but it is always under some fallen tree or cluster of broad leaves, and there is nothing to show that they arrange any part of them. So far as I could find, there is no proof that any gorilla ever put two sticks together with the idea of shelter. As to his throwing sticks or stones at an enemy, I have found nothing to verify it; in my opinion, it is a mere freak of fancy.

The current opinion or idea that a gorilla will attack a man without being provoked to it, is an error. He is shy and timid, and shrinks alike from man and other large animals. I have no doubt that when he is in a rage he is both fierce and powerful, but his ferocity and strength are rated above their true value. In combat he is a stubborn foe no doubt, but no one that I have met has ever seen him thus engaged.

The mode of attack as described by many travellers is a mere theory. It is said in this act he walks erect, beats with fury on his breast, roars and yells, and in this manner seizes his adversary, tears open his breast, and drinks the blood. I have never seen a large gorilla in the act of assault. During the time of my stay in the jungle I had a young gorilla in captivity, and I made use of him in studying the habits of his race. I kept him tied with a long line which allowed him room to play and climb, and at the same time prevented him from escaping into the forest, which he always tried to do the instant he was released. I released him frequently for the purpose of watching his mode of attack when recaptured. While being pursued he rarely looked back, but when overtaken he invariably assailed his captor. This gave me an opportunity of seeing his method of attack, in which he displayed both skill and judgment. As my boy would approach him, he would calmly turn with one side to the foe and, without facing the boy, would roll his eyes in such a manner as to see him and at the same time conceal his purpose. When the boy came within reach, the gorilla would grasp him with a thrust of the arm to one side and slightly backward. When he had seized his adversary by the leg, he would instantly swing the other arm round with a long sweep and strike the boy a hard blow; then he began to use his teeth. He seemed to depend more upon the blow than the grasp, but the latter served to hold the object of attack within reach; in every case he kept one arm and one leg in reserve until he had seized his adversary. It is true that these attacks were made upon an enemy in pursuit, but his mode appeared to be a normal one; he could strike a severe blow, and did not show any sign of tearing or scratching his opponent. In these attacks he made no sound of any kind. I do not pretend to say that other gorillas do not scream or tear their victims, but I take it that the habits of the young are much, if not quite, the same as those of their parents, and from a study of this specimen I am forced to modify many opinions imbibed from reading or from pictures and specimens which I have seen. Many of them represent the gorilla in absurd and sometimes impossible attitudes. They certainly do not represent him as I have seen him in his native wilds.

When the chimpanzee attacks, so far as I have seen among my own specimens, he approaches his enemy and strikes with both hands, one slightly in advance of the other. After striking a few blows, he will grasp his opponent and use his teeth, then shoving him away again uses his hands, and usually, on beginning the attack, accompanies the assault with a loud, piercing scream. Neither he nor the gorilla closes the hand to strike, nor uses any weapon except the hands and teeth. I had another young female gorilla for a short time as a subject for study. Her mode of attack appeared to be the same, but she was too large to risk in such experiments.

I have read and heard descriptions of the sounds made by the gorilla, but nothing ever conveyed to my mind an adequate idea of their true nature, until I heard them myself within a few hundred feet of my cage in the dead of night. By some it has been called roaring, and by others howling; but it is neither truly a roar nor a howl. They utter a peculiar combination of sounds, beginning in a low, smooth tone, which rapidly increases in pitch and frequency, until it becomes a terrific scream. The first part of the series is quite within the scope of the human voice, but as it rises in pitch and increases in volume it passes far beyond the reach of the human lungs. The first sound of the series and each alternate sound is made by expiration, while the intermediate ones appear to be by inspiration, but how it is accomplished is difficult to say. The sound as a whole resembles the braying of an ass, except the notes are shorter, the climax higher, and the sound is louder. A gorilla does not yell in this manner every night, but when he does so it is usually between two and five o'clock in the morning; I have never heard the sound during the day nor in the early part of the night. When he thus screams, he repeats the series from ten to twenty times, at intervals of one or two minutes each. I know of nothing in the way of vocal sounds that can inspire such terror as the voice of the gorilla. It can be heard over a distance of three or four miles. I could assign no definite meaning to it unless it was intended to alarm some intruder that came too near.

One morning between three and four o'clock I heard two of them screaming at the same time. I do not mean to say at the same instant, but at intervals during the same period of time. One of them was within about a third of a mile of me, and the other in another direction perhaps a mile away. The points we occupied respectively formed a scalene triangle. The sounds did not appear to have any reference to each other. Sometimes they would alternate, and at other times they would interrupt each other. They were both made by giants of their kind, and every leaf in the forest vibrated with the sound. This was during the latter part of May. They do scream in this way from time to time throughout the year, but it is most frequent and violent during February and March.

This wild screaming is sometimes accompanied by a peculiar beating sound. It has been described by travellers, and currently believed to be made by the animal beating with his hands upon his breast; but such is not the case. It is very certain that the sound cannot be made by that means. The quality of the sound shows that such cannot be the means employed. I have heard this beating several times, and have paid marked attention to its character. At a great distance it would be difficult to discern the exact quality; but on one occasion, while stopping over-night in a native town, I was aroused from sleep by a gorilla screaming and beating within a few hundred yards. I put on my boots, took my rifle, and cautiously crossed the open ground between the village and the forest. This brought me within about two hundred yards of the animal. The moon was faintly shining, but I could not see the beast, and I had no desire to approach nearer at such a time, but I heard distinctly every stroke. I believe the sound was made by beating upon a log or piece of dead wood. He was beating with both hands, the strokes alternating with great rapidity, and not unlike the manner in which the natives beat a drum, except that the hand made the same number of strokes, and the strokes were in a constant series, rising and falling from very soft to very loud, and vice versâ. A number of these runs followed one another during the time the voice continued. Between the first and second strokes the interval was slightly longer than that between the second and third, and so on through the scale. As the beating increased in loudness the interval shortened in an inverse degree, while in descending the scale the intervals lengthened as the beating softened, and the author of the sound was conscious of this fact. I could trace no relation in time or harmony between the sound of the voice and the beating, except that they began at the same time and ended at the same time. The same series of vocal sounds was repeated each time, beginning on the low note and ending on the highest note or pitch in each case, while the rise and fall of the series of the beaten sounds was not measured by the duration of the voice. The series each time began with a soft note, but ended at any part of the scale at which the voice ceased, and was not the same in every case.