pre-1900 | Africa & Asia

Early reports of ape (Pan, Gorilla, Orangutan) tool-use

It may be truth, but it is not evidence.

- Thomas Henry Huxley, 1863

In 1973, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to three men: Nikolaas Tinbergen, Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz. They were jointly celebrated as the most eminent founders of a new science, called ‘the comparative study of behaviour’ or ‘ethology’. This new field was assembling, piece by piece, the underlying reasons for animal behaviour.

The Nobel citation thanks the winners for rescuing animal studies from being driven down a ‘blind alley’ by the work of vitalists and behaviourists during the first part of the twentieth century. The trio championed detailed natural observations, including Lorenz’s insights into how young birds imprint on nearby objects, and von Frisch’s work deciphering the waggle dance language of bees, in which a returning insect tells its nest mates the direction and distance of promising flowers. Through careful experiments, ethology showed that evolution and natural selection were fundamental to what animals do.

However, people have been closely watching animals since well before the twentieth century. For example, it is likely that Aristotle described the bee dance back in the mid-fourth century BC in his History of Animals, writing that bees first visit a flower, and then:

when they have come into the hive they shake themselves, and three or four follow each of them.

[Translation provided by another eminent biologist, JBS Haldane, in 1955]

Today’s post looks at similar early mentions of animal behaviour, concentrating on those relevant to tool-use, physical ability, and especially nest-building among our great ape relatives: chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. We won’t be travelling as far back as ancient Greece, but we will be exploring those dim times before modern ethology, pre-1900. This means that bonobos don’t get their own mention, because they weren’t recognised as a separate species until the 1930s, although that’s nothing new: throughout history there has been much confusion in pinning names such as Orang, Pongo, Troglodytes, Pithecus and Gorilla (not to mention monkey and ape) onto our closest cousins.

The following is therefore a potted selection of a dozen or so quotes and their sources—a kind of commonplace book—arranged chronologically. I make no claim as to their accuracy, although I’ve not included some of the more fanciful of the earlier reports, passed down fourth and fifth hand by travellers and merchants. Translations from non-English sources are mine, with help from Google. If you’d like to read more, I recommend the Biodiversity Heritage Library as a great place to start.

Troglodytes technology

In Serra Leoa there lives a kind of monkey not found elsewhere in Guinea; they are called daris, and have no tail, and if they were not hairy it would be possible to declare that they were human like ourselves, for in other respects there is little difference. They walk on their feet, and some are so clever that if they happen to be captured when young and are brought up in a house, they go to the river to seek water and bring it back in a pot on their head.

- Andre Alvares de Almada on captured chimpanzees in Sierra Leone; Tratado breve dos Rios de Guiné (c.1594)

Let mee tell you that wee have seene in the desert places they use, trees and plants, wound and and made up together in that artificiall manner, and wrought together with that thicknes over head, to keepe away the sun, and shade the ground, which hath bin beaten, & smoothed under neath, and all things in the manner and shape of an excellent arbour, which place they have only used, and kept for their dancing and recreation; that no man living that should have come by chance, and seene the same, without knowledge of these unlucky things, but would have confidently supposed, it had, and must have beene the handy worke of man.

- Richard Jobson on possible chimpanzee nests; The Golden Trade (1623)

This Pongo is in all proportions like a man, but that he is more like a Giant in stature, then a man: for he is very tall, and hath a mans face, hollow eyed, with long haire upon his browes…They sleepe in the trees, and build shelters for the raine…The People of the Countrie, when they travaile in the Woods, make fires where they sleepe in the night; and in the morning, when they are gone, the Pongoes will come and sit about the fire, till it goeth out: for they have no understanding to lay the wood together.

- Andrew Battell on wild apes in Angola; in Purchas his Pilgrimes (1625)

Many times they fall upon the Elephants, which come to feed where they be, and so beate them with their clubbed fists, and pieces of wood, that they will runne roaring away from them…When they die among themselves, they cover the dead with great heapes of boughs and wood, which is commonly found in the Forrests.

- Andrew Battell on wild apes in Angola; in Purchas his Pilgrimes (1625)

…in the Formation [of a chimpanzee foot] and it’s Function too, being liker a Hand, than a Foot; for the distinguishing this sort of Animals from others, I have thought, whether it might not be reckoned and call'd rather Quadru-manus than Quadrupes, i.e. a four-handed, than a four-footed Animal.

- Edward Tyson on chimpanzee feet; Anatomy of a Pygmie (1699)

For a long time we have been busy devising all sorts of means, in the deepest wilderness…to catch this horrible beast alive…taking care, at the same time, that we should not be touched by him; while, unceasingly, he broke off heavy pieces of wood and green boughs, and flung them at us.

- Willem Adriaan Palm (1779) on tracking a wild orangutan; in Radermacher’s Beschryving van het Eiland Borneo (1782)

Deductions in favour of the anthropomorphous character of the Orangs have also been derived from observation of the living habits of young Orangs; but these cannot be regarded as affording a type of the nature of the adults, since it is well known that the docility and gentle manners of the young Ape rapidly give way to an unteachable obstinacy and untameable ferocity in the adult.

- Richard Owen on chimpanzees and orangutans (1835)

The formidable cuspidati [canine teeth], which supply the beast of prey with his weapons of destruction, and afford to the irrational ape his means of defence, are unnecessary in the master of the animal creation [i.e., humans], who can contrive and vary at will more effective instruments for both purposes.

- Richard Owen on chimpanzees and human tools (1835)

We did find signs of [the orangutan’s] stay there: namely, some resting places, partly still quite fresh, raised between 10 and 25 feet above the ground, consisting of broken and crosswise bent twigs and pandanus leaves, and thus a soft and round flat forming 2-3 feet in diameter. Some of these, which had provided the Orang-utan for a night-camp, were in the densely leafed top of a small tree; another, in the midst of a great fern or orchid bush, clung like a parasite to the thick trunk of one of those gigantic horns which give the pristine forests of Borneo such a proud and imposing appearance.

- Salomon Müller on wild orangutan nests in Borneo; in Verhandelingen over de Natuurlijke Geschiedenis (1839-44)

Orangs [are] harmless and inoffensive animals; and from what I saw, they would never attack a man unless brought to the ground. The rude hut which they are stated to build in the trees would be more properly called a seat or nest, for it has no roof or cover of any sort. The facility with which they form this seat is curious, and I had an opportunity of seeing a wounded female weave the branches together, and seat herself within a minute.

- James Brooke on wild orangutans in Borneo (1841)

The trees from which their food is derived, are generally scattered, except perhaps the Elais guiniensis, which, if not cut down, will be found abundant everywhere…There are other fruits of which they are fond, but, not having obtained the flowers, I am unable to name them botanically; — one, called a cherry, is pleasantly acid; another, called a walnut, is not unlike the fruit of the Juglans nigra, both in the husk, in its green state, and the nut — these they crack with stones precisely in the manner of human beings.

- Thomas Savage on wild chimpanzee diet and tool use in West Africa (1843-44)

They avoid the abodes of men, and build their habitations in trees. Their construction is more that of nests than of huts, as they have been erroneously termed by some naturalists. They generally build not far above the ground. Branches or twigs are bent or partly broken and crossed, and the whole supported by the body of a limb, or a crotch. Sometimes a nest will be found near the end of a strong leafy branch twenty or thirty feet from the ground. One I have lately seen that could not be less than forty feet, and more probably it was fifty.

Their dwelling place is not permanent, but changed in pursuit of food and solitude…It is seldom that more than one or two nests are seen upon the same tree or in the same neighborhood ; five have been found, but it was an unusual circumstance.

- Thomas Savage on wild chimpanzee nests (1843-44)

They cannot be called gregarious, seldom more than five or ten at most being found together. It has been said on good authority, that they occasionally assemble in large numbers, in gambols. My informant asserts that he saw once not less than fifty so engaged; hooting, screaming, and drumming with sticks upon old logs, which is done in the latter case, with equal facility by the four extremities.

- Thomas Savage on wild chimpanzee social tool use (1843-44)

In a recent case, the mother, when discovered, remained upon the tree with her offspring, watching intently the movements of the hunter…When the wound has not proved instantly fatal, they have been known to stop the flow of blood by pressing with the hand upon the part, and when this did not succeed, to apply leaves and grass.

- Thomas Savage on wild chimpanzee medical tool use (1843-44)

Their dwellings, if they may be so called, are similar to those of the Chimpanzee, consisting simply of a few sticks and leafy branches supported by the crotches and limbs of trees; they afford no shelter, and are occupied only at night…In the wild state their habits are in general like those of the Troglodytes niger [chimpanzee], building their nests loosely in trees, living on similar fruits, and changing their places of resort from the force of circumstances.

- Thomas Savage on wild gorilla nests (1847)

When pursued or attacked, his object is to get to the loftiest tree near; he then climbs rapidly to the higher branches, breaking off quantities of the smaller boughs, apparently for the purpose of frightening his pursuers. Temminck denies that the Orang breaks the branches to throw down when pursued; but I have myself several times observed it. It is true he does not throw them at a person, but casts them down vertically; for it is evident that a bough cannot be thrown at any distance from the top of a lofty tree. In one case, a female Mias [orangutan], on a durian tree, keep up for at least ten minutes a continuous shower of branches and of the heavy spined fruits, as large as 32-pounders, which most effectually kept us clear of the tree she was on. She could be seen breaking them off and throwing them down with every appearance of rage, uttering at intervals a loud pumping grunt, and evidently meaning mischief.

- Alfred Russell Wallace on wild orangutan object throwing (1856)

I am sorry to be the dispeller of such agreeable delusions; but the gorilla does not lurk in trees by the roadside, and drag up unsuspicious passers-by in its claws, and choke them to death in its vice-like paws; it does not attack the elephant and beat him to death with sticks…it does not even build itself a house of leaves and twigs in the forest-trees and sit on the roof, as has been confidently reported of it.

- Paul du Chaillu on wild gorillas in West Africa (1862)

The nshiego mbouve (Troglodytes calvus) [a proposed new type of chimpanzee] has…the singular habit of building for itself a nest or shelter of leaves amid the higher branches of trees. I have watched, at different times, this ape retiring to its rest at night, and have seen it climb up to its house and seat itself comfortably on the projecting branch, with its head in the dome of the roof, and its arm about the tree. The shelter is made of leaves compactly laid together, so as easily to shed rain. The branches are fastened to the trunk of the tree with vines, in which these forests greatly abound. The roof is generally from six to eight feet in its greatest diameter, and has the exact shape of an extended umbrella.

- Paul du Chaillu on a wild ape from West Africa (1862)

Some monkeys are said to use clubs, and to throw sticks and stones at those who intrude upon them. We know that they use round stones for cracking nuts, and surely a very small step would lead from that to the application of a sharp stone for cutting.

- John Lubbock on chimpanzee nut-cracking and the evolution of stone tools (1865)

An orang never uses a nest after the leaves become withered and dry, no doubt for the reason that the bare branches afford an uncomfortable resting place. I never saw nor heard of any house-building by orang-outans, though I am led to believe that some individuals may have a habit of covering their bodies with branches for protection against the dashing of rain-drops during a heavy storm.

- William Hornaday on orangutan nests and rain covers (1879)

- Gustav Mützel drawing of chimpanzee Mafuka holding a twig tool in Dresden zoo; in Brehms Thierleben (1876)

Sources: Huxley, T. (1863) Evidence as to Man’s Place in Nature. Williams and Norgate, London. || Haldane, J.B.S. (1955) Aristotle's Account of Bees' ‘Dances’. The Journal of Hellenic Studies 7: 24-25. || Almada, A. (1594) Tratado breve dos Rios de Guiné. Translated by P. Hair, 1984. || Jobson, R. (1623) The Golden Trade. Nicolas Okes, London. || Purchas, S. (1625) Hakluytus posthumus, or, Purchas his Pilgrimes: contayning a history of the world in sea voyages and lande travells by Englishmen and others. Henry Featherston, London. || Tyson, E. (1699) Orang-outang, sive homo sylvestris: or, The anatomy of a pygmie compared with that of a monkey, an ape, and a man. T. Bennett and D. Brown, London. || Radermacher, J.C.M. (1782) Beschryving van het Eiland Borneo. Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap 2:107-148. || Owen, R. (1835) On the Osteology of the Chimpanzee and Orang Utan. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 1:343-379. || Müller, S. (1839-44) Verhandelingen over de natuurlijke geschiedenis der Nederlandsche overzeesche bezittingen. Leiden. || Brooke, J. (1841) Letter read to the Zoological Society of London, 13 July 1841. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 9:55-60. || Savage, T. & J. Wyman (1843-44) Observations on the external characters and habits of the Troglodytes niger, Geoff. Boston Journal of Natural History 4:362-386. || Savage, T. & J. Wyman (1847) Notice of the external characters and habits of Troglodytes gorilla, a new species of Orang from the Gaboon River. Boston Journal of Natural History 5:417-443. || Wallace, A.R. (1856) On the Habits of the Orang-Utan of Borneo. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 18:26-32. || du Chaillu, P. (1862) Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa. Harper & Brothers, New York. || Lubbock, J. (1865) Pre-historic Times. Williams and Norgate, London. || Hornaday, W. (1879) On the species of Bornean orangs, with notes on their habits. Proceedings of the American Association for Advanced Sciences 28:438-455. || Kattmann, U. (2001) Piecing together the history of our knowledge of chimpanzee tool use. Nature 411:413.

Main image credit: Huxley (1863) p.12, after Hoppius (1760) || Second to fifth image credits: selected titles of cited works || Sixth image credit: du Chaillu (1862) || Sixth image credit: Brehms Thierleben (1876), via Kattman (2001)