Evening star., 1938-09-11
Monkey Colony
in Puerto Rico.
By FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

than three centuries ago and the colonists
brought ir the voyages of Christopher
Columbus, as well as later Spanish navi-
gators, made their first settlements on
islands. There have been many other
island settlements in the Western World,
but the strangest is one which has just
been started on Santiago, one Of the
American West Indies. 1t Is a colony Of
| gibbon monkeys.
First scientific investigators and then
| their lay followers devoted themselves to
the mysteries of psychology and. not long
! ago, there came time when number
| of people were of the opinion that psy-
choanalysis was a system which could
| solve most human ills. There is whole
| profession of psychoanalysts and many
| of them do very WE'LL indeed, their pa
| tients being members OF the class which
| has been called the idle rich and not
| having anything much the matter with
| them anyway.
Now the more advanced scientific in
vestigators have been visited by doubts
| as to whether human beings are the best
| subjects for psychoanalysis, having be-
| come evolved and educated away from
| natural freedom of action. For that rea-
son it has been determined to devote
special study to the gibbon monkey, the
| most manlike of the anthropoid family.
So Columbia University has under
| taken fascinating experiment in collab-
| grafton with the University Of Puerto
| Rico and the School of Tropical Medi-
| cine of the island. An entire island has
| been acquired and been set aside to be
populated by gibbons who will live In
| free state with no cages around them.
| They will be visited by the scientists
| desiring to observe how they live, but
| otherwise gill be as free, indeed freer,
| than in their original habitat of South
| eastern Asia Freer because there will
| be no natural enemies to prey upon them
X Il +
The Island of Santiago lies OF the
| southeast coast Of Puerto Rico, only a
| quarter of mile from the mainland. 1t
| is but dot of land in the tropical sea,
measuring but 36 acres in area, but 1t Is
a place of rare tropical beauty with
| varied terrain. Some of it is rocky and
some sandy but its vegetation is luxuri-
ant. 1t is almost natural museum OF
| tropical vegetation in itself. There are
| many coconut palms and some 1000
| shade trees, which should make the glib
bons feel at home, they being essentially
arboreal creatures. There are fruit trees
| producing guavas, lines, mameys and
bananas and many root crops.
| The colony is being started with less
| than so gibbons, but it is expected that
| there will be rapid multiplication as
| climatic conditions are closely similar to
those of the natural eastern habitat Of
| the creatures. But one difficulty exists
and that is shortage OF spring or stream
water This has been overcome, however,
| through the construction of a large con-
crete tank which will collect rainfall. and
as precipitation averages some 60 inches
year it is believed the supply will be
| adequate. Should drought. occur water
can be brought from the mainland.
| That the gibbons will thrive on SAM
tiago is believed to have been demon
strated by the experience with an ex-
perimental group which was brought
from Siam. They were collected by the
authority on primate biology, c. r. Car
penter. He started from Siam for Puerto
Rico with eight, but one of them died en-
| route. The seven which arrived, how
| ever. have done well. so it Is thought the
|
| There has not yet been time to study
the larger group but the original seven
have been studied since last October
1t is known that gibbons talk among
| themselves and one can well imagine that
these original seven may some day regard
themselves as the Pilgrim Fathers who
sailed to Plymouth did and that their
| descendants may boast of their ances-
| tors who came over on the ship which
corresponds in this case to the Mayfiower.
| The original seven were not taken i'm
| mediately to the island, but were held at
the institute of the School Of Tropical
| Medicine on the mainland of Puerto
Rico. There a large cage was prepared
| for them. It was kept spotlessly clean
with fresh straw placed in the sleeping
loft daily. The food was carefully pre-
pared during this period Of captivity.
| Gibbons are gregarious and behave much
| as humans do. Their breakfast each day
consisted of milk and eggs with slices of
| whole wheat bread. This meal was
served in one large pan and the gibbons
| comported their feeding with the utmost
decorum, dipping their bread in the mix
ture of milk and eggs and often handing
each other choice pieces.
| Dinner was OF cooked plantainS, car.
rots, sweet potatoes with raw lettuce and
| sometimes little rice. With tea in the
| late afternoon fruit was served An elec-
| trio refrigerator was installed to keep
food supplies fresh. Of course, on the
island the gibbons will shift for them
selves, but they can select the same diet
growing naturally.
| The interest shown by Puerto Ricans
who had never seen such creatures be-
| fore was tremendous and it is interesting
to note that they referred to the gibbons
as la gente, or the people, as opposed to
los animales, and, indeed, the little crea-
lures are astonishingly like humans.
They are young, ranging in age from l to
"a years.
The leader has been named by the
islanders Jean-Jean. He is the oldest
and seems to be head man, or was during
the captivity in the cage. Other names
| have been given, such as Franco, Payaso.
| Blackie and Barrie Mosquito and Halle
Selasse, young black-and- silver male.
All show marked individualities and peo-
pie who have come to watch them are
able at glance to know them apart.
They are paired of. Each male has a
| girl, although these are all babies which
are well short Of maturity. Each female
| shows constant Difference to her partic,,.
| lar male. A matter of pertinent interest
Is that Payaso, the male whose girl died