The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1922-04-04
THE GENTLE GORILLA.
Akeley Brings Back from Africa New
Information About This Beast.

Mans idea of the gorilla was gem
orally that he was peculiarly fero-
cious beast whose savage onrush rifle
bullet could scarcely stop and whose
role in his jungle home was carrying
African natives to his lair or sweep
ing down from treetops upon unsus
pecting hunters. He was the picture
OF violent sayagery; the very embodi-
ment Of brute ferociV. DIR. Carl r.
Akeley, who Ass just returned from
Africa with FIVE skins OF the biggest
of the gorilla family for the American
Museum of Natural History, says that
is all wrong. The so-called man-eating
gorilla il very tame creature, Zero
cious only if cornered, timid and rath-
or gentle; and it is no sport to shoot
one Of his kind.
With all the opportunity that man
has had for studying this big simian,
he seems to have found out little
about him. The hunters OF anclelt
Carthage described the gorilla musa
as the modern huntes does, but the
world has gone on confonndlng am
with the chimpanzee and the orangtan.
Paul du Chaillu brought back some
pretty tall stories of the gorillas IN
cursions on native villages and 'Is
ferocity. But. even accepting as
fact that the creature approached .hs
villages. the most of~th really authen-
tic information regarding his behavior
was TO the effect that he ate the frssa
grain and then mussed up cane pat n
by making his bed in It. IL was bis
destructiveness rather than his ferocl-
tv that made the natives hate him.
The natives say that they seldom
see a gorilla, he is TOO timid to come
often out of his forest shelter. This
timidity may account for the fact that
naturalists have always had trouble in
fixing the real extent of his habitat.
The natives, too, give him credit for
being a rather faithful head OF his
family If he goes out for walk
in the woods he takes his mate and
Young ones with him. When he re-
turns he puts them to sleep in leaf
nest in the top of the tree and he
watches at the foot for his slyest and
most formidable enemy. the leopard.
III ever the two meet it Is a battle
royal from which only one comes out
alive.
DIR. Akeley saws he saw a group Of
four or five having a frolic in an open
ing in the woods. They we're playing
as children do and fled only when they
heard the click Of the camera. II is
said that all of the few gorillas in cap.
tivity were gentle and docile, and
showed the chimpanzee's traits and
ability TO learn. But these captives
were all young. An adult gorilla might
be expected to object to being impris-
oned and made show Of. That Is a
privilege to which he is entitled.
The gorilla is monstrously big
fellow. One of those killed by DIR.
Akeley weighed 500 pounds. was five
and one half feet in height and meas
red sixty inches around the chest.
Such creature was built and trained
by nature for fighting. Many men
with same equipment might have been
more quarrelsome and troublesome. 1t
is his looks which have been against
the gorilla and which have given him
his bad name. We are glad DIR. Axe.
lev has put us right on the matter and
we have no regret that he brought
back the skins not the wild tiwid ere
atures Of the forest themselves to he
captives.-New York Herald.