Anthropoid Behavior

Abstract

INTRODUCTION JN THE first quarter of the present century both scientific and popular interest in the anthropoid apes has increased steadily and greatly. Publications have multiplied correspondingly. Despite lively interest in other primates, and in other phenomena than those of behavior, we have been constrained by the magnitude of our task and the space allotted us to limit this digest to studies of the behavior and mentality of the four existing types of anthropoid ape: the gibbon, the orang-utan, the chimpanzee, and the gorilla. For convenience we shall hereafter use the term ape as synonymous with anthropoid ape. Morphologic, taxonomic, and physiologic publications, however intimately related to psycho-biological problems, have bcen omitted unless they contain significant original contributions to behavior. As our primary recent sources of aid in matters of classification, structure, and genetic relations, we have used the pertinent works of Elliot (X8) and Sonntag (72). The former, in addition to taxonomic information, supplies an immense amount of miscellaneous material on the habits and life-history of the apes, and the latter, with his convenient summary of their morphological characteristics, supplies a bibliography of over five hundred titles. Although many authors consider anthropoid characters, discussions of evolution have been omitted from this digest because' they give but scant and inexpert attention to psycho-biological phenomena. The chronological limits of our survey were dictated by the beginnings in i9i2. of determined endeavor to provide facilities for anthropoid research, and by the date of writing-March, i92.6. Prior to i9i2. no major experimental contribution to our knowledge of the behavior of an anthropoid ape had been published. Although it necessitates slight repetition of references, topical arrangement of materials has been employed and generally under topics the chronological order. Popular papers have been ignored, except in those few instances in which they present original observations. Ordinarily, we have excluded also preliminary announcements, ummaries, and abstracts. Aside from these intentional omissions the bibliographic list is thought to be reasonably complete.