The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1893-09-07
GIANT APES.
They Are Greatly Annoyed by Flies and
Make Nests to Escape Torment.

The great island of Borneo is the
home of the crang, the most arborea
of all monkeys aud one of the mos,
noticeable features of the landscape is
the nests of the oranrS. which are
scattered about thickly among the tai
| trees.
Fpm their number one might get a
greatly exaggerated impression of tbs
| plentlfulness of the species, says Waus,-
| ly, unless 1t were understood how and
Tor what purpose these roosting-places
were constructed.
The apes are greatly ANNOYED by
flies, from which they are able to pro-
tect the front part of their bodies with
thelr hands, but they cannot keep the
vicious insects from biting them in the
rear, and so they gather a quantity of
leaves and branches and make them
INTO couches to repose against among
the boughs.
protection of this sort serves very
well for awhile, but presently its
material begins to decompose and the
decaylng leaves attract the flies, which
he orang is SO anxious to get rid of.
Then he is obliged to make another
nest OF fresh stuff, and so he may re-
quire dozens of them in the course of
the year. lnasmuch as he does not
take the trouble to remove the old
ones, they remain to adorn the tree
top in which he swings about.
Orangs have a very curious method
OF lighting. In their conflicts among
themselves, which are frequent, their
effort Is always to seize the fingers of
their adversaries and bite them. 1t is
owing TO this method of battle that it
IS almost impossible to procure a skin
which does not lack some of the fingers.
II defending itself against a man, the
oranG VIII always attempt to grab the
arms OF his human opponent, so as to
chew off his fingers. For this purpose
us Jaws are cNcellently adapted. being
enormously powerful and equipped
with huge incisors
To protect itself from the rain the
orang crooks its arms over its head.
The hair on the orang's upper arm
points downward, while on the lower
arm 1t points upward, the apparent
purpose being to shed the rain like
thatch when the attitude thus de-
scribed is assumed.
The other great ape which makes its
home in Borneo is the gibbon. which is
small animal compared with the
orang, weighing only about forty or
fifty pounds. 1t is very frail in its
bodily makeup. The head is set
squarely upon the shoulders and it
looks upward. When walking on the
ground it balances itself along like a
walker on the ti@ht-rope. Its remark |
able power of grasp and dexterity in
using its hands is equally with the
shape of its Uranium an index of it's |
superior intelligence. perhaps because
1t is able to take hold of greater |
y "i'fef Tsfot Ts~a 4.v>j.. ssi,zs,.t! 4>gy
trapeZe performances III trees are |
simply marvellous. The animals 90 in |
droves, whereas orangs live by fami-
lies, and one of the most interesting
spectacles imaginable is to see group |
of gibbons crossing a great gap in the |
forest by throwing themselves in sue
cession through the air, each one tax
ing Il swing or two to gather momen- |
tum before launching himself So |
great is their agility that in executing
feats of this sort they seem like birds. |
Natives in the countries inhabited |
by great apes regard them always as
human beings of inferior types and it
is for this reason that for long time |
it was found impossible TO get hold OF
an entire gorilla skin, because the
savages considered it religiously necas- |
sary TO cut off the hands and feet of |
the animals when they killed them, just |
as they do with their enemies, possibly |
for the purpose of rendering them
harmless i'll case they should by any
chance come to life again.