Chapter 22 Unraveling the Mysteries of the Ape Kingdom①

There are four species of modern apes: gibbons, brown apes, black apes, and great apes.The first is a small ape, and the last three are great apes.Great apes are also known as "great apes" because of their human-like appearance.They are the closest to humans and are called "cousins" of humans. ① Originally contained in "The Rising Civilization--Cultural Perspective of Human Origin", Northeast Forestry University Press, 1996 edition. 1.Gibbons (Hylobates).It is a low-level ape with a height of about 1 meter and a weight of about 10 kilograms. Its coat color is mottled and its brain volume does not exceed 100-120 milliliters. It lives purely in trees.Gibbons, as the name suggests, have very long forelimbs, which can be nearly twice the body length. They are experts in arm walking, swinging and leaping between branches so fast that they can catch birds.Occasionally, when going down to the ground, it can stand upright, with both knees bent, and the forelimbs stretched or raised above the head to maintain balance.The sound it makes is like singing, euphemistic and pleasant.

Gibbons are widely distributed in Indochina and Malaysia.It is also distributed in the tropical rain forests of Xishuangbanna and Hainan Island in my country, but the number is extremely limited.In addition to the above-mentioned common gibbons, there is also a kind of siamang with the second and third toes growing together. They are larger in size and black in color. They are devoted to the study of philosophical issues in natural science and have written many papers and notes ( Later, and has a throat pouch that resonates when making sounds, this gibbon only inhabits one place in Sumatra.

2.Brown ape (Pongo).This kind of ape has a relatively large body, with males reaching a height of 1.4 meters and a weight of 100-120 kilograms. Females are significantly smaller, less than half the size of males.The difference between males and females is also manifested in: males have large meat warts on their cheeks, which are concave and convex; males have well-developed sagittal ridges on their skulls; adult males have a particularly large laryngeal pouch extending to the chest. Use it to support heavy heads.The brain volume of the brown ape is 300-500 ml.The body is hairy and dense, and the coat color is reddish brown (some people call it "orangutan").The forearm is long and reaches to the ankle.The brown ape is mainly active in the trees, using both hands and feet, and climbing in the bushes.When it gets down to the ground, the fingers are clenched into fists, and the body is supported with the backs of the fingers on the ground. Walking in a semi-upright posture, the outside of the soles of the feet touch the ground in a "reverse heel shape". They move slowly and rarely stand upright.The brown ape mainly feeds on fruits and young leaves, and often uses powerful teeth to bite through the shell of nuts.

There is only one species of brown ape, which is distributed in Kalimantan and Sumatra in Southeast Asia.At present, brown apes are no longer found in my country, but they were widely distributed in South my country during the Pleistocene period of geological history. 3.Great ape (Gorilla).This is the largest type of ape.The height of the male is more than 1.8 meters, the highest can reach 2 meters, the shoulder width is 1 meter, and the weight is about 200 kilograms. The female is relatively smaller.The brain volume of great apes is 400-600 ml.Because the body is too large to continue to argue the situation.With the drastic changes in society, the expansion of the "scholar" class and the privateness are no longer suitable for living in trees, so they spend most of their time on the ground.It walks in a semi-upright posture, supported by its forelimbs, and lands on the back of its knuckles, as if supporting a cane.The great ape can stand upright, with the entire sole of the foot on the ground, and the toes are not bent.Sometimes they stand up and slap their chests. They look fierce on the outside, but they are actually mild-tempered.Basically vegetarian.Great apes usually form small groups, which contain several small family groups. The latter often have a male leading several females, but this group is temporary.

Great apes are mainly distributed in the tropical forests of the equatorial regions of Africa. There is only one species, which can be distributed in two subspecies. One is the coastal great ape or the lowland great ape, which mainly inhabits Cameroon and Gabon in West Africa; the other is the The alpine great ape lives in the mountains above 3,000 meters above the border between Congo and Uganda in Africa. 4.Black ape (Pan).Black apes are the most numerous, with three species.The most famous is the common black ape, which was first known to people.The average weight of the black ape is 50 kg and the height is 1.5 meters. The difference between the sexes is much smaller than that of the great ape and the brown ape.The coat color is generally black, and it likes to move around in trees, where it can build temporary nests for sleeping at night.It is good at arm walking, and sometimes it can barely walk upright when it goes down to the ground, but it needs to support the ground with its forelimbs when running fast.It likes to live in groups, each group can reach more than 10, and the maximum can reach 30-40.Omnivorous, in addition to vegetarian, often catch small birds and animals to eat.It is mainly distributed in the tropical forests of the Congo River and Niger River basins in Africa.

There is also a dwarf black ape that inhabits an area of ​​about 2,000 square kilometers east of the middle reaches of the Congo River (Zaire). It is called "Bigmi black ape".But according to research in recent years, this title is wrong.Because they are actually not short, with a weight of 25-48 kg, compared to 40-50 kg for common black apes.Their average height is 1.16 meters. Xin Lun Huan Tan of the Eastern Han Dynasty.The original twenty-nine articles, "Sui Shu·Jing Ji Zhi" stated: the average brain volume is 350 ml, and that of the common black ape is 400 ml.They have small heads, black faces, pink lips, narrow eye sockets, and prominent faces.There are webs between the second and third toes of the feet.They are also commonly known as Bonobos, a name derived from the town "Bolobo" from which its specimens were originally obtained.Because they were not named until 1933, they are also known as "the newest apes".They spend most of their time in trees, sometimes on the ground and walk on quadrupeds, and 50% of the time on bipeds to carry food and other items.In recent years, they have been valued by the scientific community, thinking that many of their habits may be similar to the distant ancestors of humans.

In addition, there is a bald black ape, which has almost no hair on its head. In the past, we knew very little about the behavior, habits and group life of these apes, and sometimes we were confused by some plausible rumors and drew some incorrect conclusions.For example, great apes were considered extremely vicious...there has been a big shift in perception of them now.Because since the 1960s, a team of wild apes and monkeys has sprung up. Through arduous fieldwork, sometimes even living in ape groups, they have revealed previously little known or unknown life in ape groups. of mysteries.These field investigations not only further demonstrated the close kinship between humans and apes, but also provided important clues for exploring the transformation process from apes to humans and the early life of human ancestors.

Among the scientific researchers engaged in the ecological investigation of wild apes, there are a group of brave girls, who are not afraid of hardships and dangers, overcome many difficulties, and go deep into the primeval forest for a long time to make and edit. , mingle with the apes.With female-specific patience and carefulness, as well as strong and subtle sensibility, they observed and recorded the process of scientific practice and important events in detail, and obtained precious first-hand information. made an outstanding contribution to the mysterious curtain.Who are they?The first is the young British girl Jenny Goodall.It was she who forged the path of this fascinating and fruitful fieldwork life.

In 1960, after graduating from high school, Goodall entered the African jungle alone, and engaged in the investigation of black apes in the Gombe River Game Reserve (now Gombe River National Park) in Tanzania in East Africa. attention and support. Her investigation activities are based on the behavior of black apes.In addition to taking the overall activities of the ape group as the object, the individual members of the group were also carefully observed.The "Black Ape Behavior" she founded has great academic value for the study of human origin. Her research continues to this day. In May 1995, the National Geographic Magazine awarded her the highest award, the Habbard Medal.

Stella Brewer, another girl who worked on the ecology of the apes, was also British. Stella Brewer's campaign differed from Goodall's in that she attempted to release a group of captive black apes back into the wild.For this, she uses nature as a special laboratory.She lived with the black apes and taught them how to get rid of their dependence on humans, adapt to the wild state, and survive in the wild.In this arduous but energetic practice, she conducted in-depth investigations on the behavior, habits and group life of black apes, and revealed many mysteries in the lives of black apes from another perspective.

Her scientific investigation activities had been warmly supported and assisted by Goodall. In order to help her better engage in such activities, Goodall specially invited Brewer to her experimental station as a trainee.In addition, Italian girl Refala brought her little black ape to join Breuer's experiment, and American girl Charlene also participated in Breuer's scientific activity of "Black Ape Returning to Nature" . It should be mentioned here that what Goodall and Brewer studied was the common black ape.In addition, the Bonobo black ape has been investigated since 1973 by Japanese scholars Ryuichi Kaner and Toshio Nishida. Diana Fossier is an American girl and an outstanding field expert.Since 1967, she has conducted fieldwork on mountain great apes in Central Africa. Like Brewer, she had read Goodall and visited her experimental camp.She focused on investigating the group relationship of great apes and made many new discoveries.For example, she unexpectedly discovered that great apes are not as vicious and aggressive as people used to imagine.On the contrary, they are very gentle animals, and their intelligence is also quite high. Fossier's field reports were published from time to time in National Geographic.Unfortunately, Fossie died at the knife of poachers and sacrificed her precious life to protect these lovely great apes. The investigation and research on the ecology of the brown ape in Asia was conducted by Bilut Gardikas.Since 1971, she has been engaged in research activities in the Kalimantan region of Indonesia.According to her statistics, as of 1980, she had spent 13,000 hours in the wild with brown apes and on investigations. Galdiccas' research work is to gather the brown apes confiscated from poachers and the brown apes raised in various places for stocking. In the process of returning the brown apes to the forest, the ecology of the brown apes Conduct in-depth inspections and research. Because these brown apes have lived with humans for a long or short time, they have developed a certain dependence on artificial life.It is an excellent opportunity to understand the behavior and habits of apes from the opposite point of view to make them abandon the habits they have formed and adapt to life in the wild state. In order to carry out multi-faceted research, in 1978, she also hired Gary Shapiro to teach brown apes to master sign language.What's more, after Galdiccas's son Bindi was born, in order to conduct a comparative study on the intelligence and behavior of the ape and human children during their development, she let Bindi and the ape live together, and let them Use sign language to communicate. During the investigation of the brown ape ecology, Galdiccas discovered many phenomena that had not been noticed before.For example, brown apes are not purely arboreal animals as people thought in the past. They also spend a lot of time on the ground, and sometimes even take a nap on the ground.She also found that the longer brown apes live in artificial environments, the harder it is to return to nature, which is quite similar to Brewer's findings, which is very meaningful. Now let's take a look at the results of these skilled field workers. First, black apes have been observed using and making tools in the wild: 1. "Fishing" ants.This is a well-known example of the use and making of "tools" by black apes, first discovered by Goodall in the Gombe River area.She saw black apes "fishing" for ants with grass stalks and thin sticks, and repairing these "tackles" when necessary. Ants live in groups and will bite tightly on anything that invades their nest.The black ape took advantage of the characteristic of ants, poked branches into the hole, and after they bit the branches in groups, they pulled out the branches, and many ants were "fished" out in this way.Then the black ape licks these "delicious". When the black ape is "feeding" ants, if the entrance of the ant nest is large enough to reach in and catch it, it will not "fish"; if it cannot reach in at first, it will use branches to help.It will use its hands and teeth to remove the small branches and leaves from the branches to make suitable "tools".If the hole is small and it is inconvenient to use branches, use thin vines instead, or remove the vine bark for reuse.Sometimes it is also used to remove the twigs on the bark, or directly process the bark into thin strips of "fishing sticks".In rare cases, black apes will also use their mouths to remove the mesophyll of large oval leaves, and then take the veins in them as "fishing sticks". Goodall once observed that the black ape first folded off the too soft ends of the branches, and then squeezed the leaves with clenched hands into a fist shape. .And what Brewer observed was this: She saw a female ape named "Tina" break off a delicate branch, bite one end with her mouth, and stroke the leaves with her hands, leaving the leaves in the end. The two leaves at one end of the twig are also removed, so that the "fishing stick" is made.When Tina "fishes" an ant and breaks a twig, it pulls off a section until it can no longer be used, then throws away the stump and makes a new one.Generally, the "fishing rod" used by adult black apes is about 20 to 30 centimeters long. Usually, it only takes less than 1 minute for the black ape to make such a "fishing rod", and no other "tools" have been found to process "fishing rods". Time to "fish" ants.The shortest time is 2.6 seconds, the longest is 15.9 seconds, and the average is 6.9 seconds from the "fishing stick" poking into the hole to taking out the food. The whole process of "fishing" ants can last for more than 1 hour, and the longest can reach 86 minutes. The behavior of "fishing" ants can be observed in groups of black apes that are far apart geographically.Goodall also found that as the young black apes grew up, their ant-fishing behavior continued to improve, and the little apes would also observe their mother's "ant-fishing" behavior and imitate it.Generally speaking, black apes began to try to use "tools" when they were 3 years old, and the activity of "fishing" ants also started around this time. 2.Use leaves to absorb water, absorb brain and blood.Goodall discovered that black apes use leaves to absorb water remaining in tree holes.She saw that when the tree hole was deep and the black ape's lips could not reach the water, it would pick off some leaves and chew them in its mouth, then spit out the leaves and stuff them into the village hole with its index and middle fingers , this leaf country is like a "sponge" that absorbs the water in the tree hole, and then the black ape takes this "sponge" out of the tree hole to suck, and uses it repeatedly. Goodall also found that black apes like to eat the brains of other animals. Sometimes they will stuff the chewed leaves into the almost empty brain cavity to absorb the remaining brain and blood.Some scholars also found that after the black apes chewed the leaves that had absorbed the brain and blood, they spit them out and handed them to another black ape to chew. Swallow or throw away.Experts believe that black apes use the leaf clusters to prolong the time and increase the taste of soft foods.This appears to be another instance of intentionally changing the shape of an object to use as a "tool". 3.Use rocks and twigs as weapons.Goodall observed that when black apes and baboons had violent conflicts over bananas, the older males would throw stones at the baboons, sometimes twigs or even leaves when no suitable stones were at hand, while all the other adult males The apes followed suit with the baboons. All adult male black apes and most young male black apes show their power by throwing objects, especially when provoked. Some throw it like a javelin, others throw a large stone to show its power. 4.Use rocks and sticks to smash nuts and dig up insects.Brewer observed that black apes were quite capable of using "tools" to smash nuts.They hold the nuts and break the cracks on the tree trunk first, then insert a small stick into the cracks, and press down hard with their hands to open the shells. Black apes in West Africa use stones to break open the hard shells of oil palm fruits, and use wooden sticks to dip honeycombs into honeycombs to eat. 5.Use stones and leaves to wipe off the dirt on your body.Many black apes will use the leaves to wipe off the blood, mud or food residue on their mouths. If the young apes defecate and soil their bodies, the female apes will use the leaves to wipe it clean.Goodall also observed that black apes sometimes stick blades to bleeding wounds. But scientists have found that no matter how smart apes are, their behavior of making and using "tools" does not exceed the use of their own organs, and apes never think of using other objects to process their "tools". However, from the "fishing" of ants by the black ape, we can see that although predation on insects (including ants) is the habit of many animals, only the black ape has the ability to use "tools" to eat ants.They know how to choose different methods according to the size of the ant nest hole, know how to choose the material of the tool, and know which trees the ants will live on in their area, and which types of ants have the habit of biting foreign objects.All of this points to a certain amount of intelligence in the black ape.Their behavior of "fishing" ants is no longer a purely instinctive activity, but already has the germination of consciousness. Second, the expedition also found that apes are not vegans, and that apes can hunt cooperatively and share prey. For a long time people have mistakenly believed that apes are pure vegetarians, only occasionally eating some insects, bird eggs, etc.Field investigations have shown that this is not the case. Meat also accounts for a certain proportion of apes' feeding. According to Goodall’s observation, the meat “recipe” of a group of more than 40 black apes in the Gombe River area is as follows: various insects (including beetles, wasps, gall beetles, ants and termites, etc.), bird eggs , small birds just learning to fly, and some large animals (such as young forest gazelles, African wild boars, baboons, black and red colobus monkeys, red-tailed monkeys and green monkeys, etc.).A question is involved here, that is, what form does orangutan hunting take? According to observations, when black apes catch animals in the Gombe River area, in addition to simple sudden sprints, they also adopt two methods of chasing and tiptoe tracking.Especially stealthy tracking is a premeditated and tricky capture method.This process is often carried out by several black apes in cooperation. At most, 5 male black apes were seen rounding up 3 baboons that were caught up in the tree. The hunting process ends with the sharing of the catch.The scene of sharing the prey is very interesting. In addition to the fact that the apes participating in the hunt each get a share of the prey, even those who did not participate in the hunt, those who rushed to the scene after the event could grab a part of the prey's corpse. However, that's not quite the case, as Goodall found.She said that once she observed that after a black ape hunted a baboon, the black ape that caught the baboon did not allow other members to share its prey at first, but only threw the leftovers to the Only after it is released to the ground, other apes are allowed to share. At this time, other black apes fight for the leftover meat. Brewer has also observed black apes hunting monkeys in her group of apes.According to her observation, in the initial hunting activities, there was no coordinated behavior among them, and it was only later that they gradually learned to "coordinate hunting". In March 1992, the American "National Geographic Magazine" reported the latest discovery of American zoologist Christopher Poisa's investigation of black apes' tool use and hunting in Africa.In these previously unknown findings, black apes not only collect stones to use as nut-breaking mallets, but also remember where to place them after use; mother apes sometimes teach young how to use these stone mallets to smash nuts.In addition, we also filmed the situation of the division of labor in the hunting of the ape group, among which some acted as "killers", "chasers" and "ambushers". Eat it. Some scholars believe that the behavior of black apes to hunt cooperatively and share prey is not only to increase the meat content, but also has social significance.It is even believed that this behavior appeared before humans, which may change some theories about the origin of humans, that is, the premise of erect posture and hunting behavior is the liberation of hands and the use of tools.Some also think that whether the appearance of this behavior of apes is the hunting behavior of human ancestors in the open woodland grassland that people often consider, which seems to indicate that the behavioral differences between humans and non-human primates are also becoming more and more smaller. Furthermore, during the investigation, it was also found that not all apes are afraid of fire.This discovery is important. Man has conquered fire, but animals in general are afraid of fire.What about the apes?According to Brewer's observations, fire has a great allure for apes.Apes are aware of the danger of fire, so they approach it carefully to avoid being burned by it.Brewer said that while she hasn't seen black apes blowing coals to get the fire going, she has seen black apes pile the coals well enough to get the fire going again.She also found that in cooler climates black apes like to rest on hot ashes. Once, a fire broke out in the forest, and the black ape did not show a particularly panicked look.A few days later, Brewer took some black apes for a walk in the valley, and she found that the black apes were actually looking for and picking up burnt pod seeds in the ashes under the trees to eat. These interesting plots show another side of the life of our distant ancestors - only those who are interested in fire and are willing to approach it can have the transition of using fire to achieve certain purposes.This finding makes sense. In addition, what most interested the investigators during the observation process was the group life of the apes.Examination in this area has mainly focused on sexual relations within ape groups.This is because the group life of apes is mainly reflected in the sexual relationship, and the form of mates in animal groups often has an important impact on the composition of the group, the cooperative relationship of members in the group and the stability of the group. According to Goodall's observations on black ape groups, it is found that mature male black apes stay in the group, which will make the male black apes more or less blood related; while the female black apes in the group often leave the original group to join during the estrus period. Go to neighboring groups, thus avoiding the disadvantages of inbreeding. When female black apes in heat join a group, the male black apes in the group become active.In terms of sexual relationship, female black apes mate with most male black apes in sequence, and there is no phenomenon of fighting for mates among male black apes.They are quite tolerant of each other. During the estrus period of the female black ape, it has a very obvious sign, that is, the sex skin structure of the genitals is swollen and pink, and the volume increases.About 10 days before and after this process, at this time, the male black apes often make various "courtship" expressions to the female black apes, and sometimes there are short-term courtship activities with threats-in fact, it is a kind of boastful behavior.The mating time of the black ape lasts about half a minute. The situation is different in the Asiatic brown ape, which, according to Galdiccas, does not allow the presence of another male during mating.The male brown ape is often "the strongest is king", if the third one is strong, it will expel the existing male brown ape and occupy the female brown ape.In order to compete for mates, male brown apes often fight, sometimes quite fiercely.During her several years of observation, Galdiccas encountered three violent fights between male brown apes for mates.Under normal circumstances, adult male brown apes always avoid contact with other brown apes, do not like to be in groups, but "walk alone".The female brown apes often move in groups of three or five, but the duration is not long.It has been observed that two female brown apes each brought a cub to live together for 3 days, which is the longest cluster time ever recorded.Although juvenile brown apes often move in groups of three or five, generally speaking, the gregariousness of brown apes is poor, and the group relationship is not close. As for the situation with great apes, there are mixed observations.Some investigators found that the group of great apes is relatively stable, generally led by an older male great ape (called "silverback" because the long hair on his back turns gray with age), Lead several female great apes and their offspring, and one or two young male great apes to form a group.As the leader of the group, the "silverback", cannot tolerate other male great apes' possession of female great apes, so male great apes often fight with other male great apes to protect their privileges or compete for female great apes Fierce fight.In contrast to the black ape who developed its ability to mate sexually, the great ape developed its ability to fight.Probably in view of this, male great apes almost never appear "courtship", and female great apes only have estrus for 1 to 2 days, and the degree of swelling of their sex skin is not obvious. However, Fossier's observations have found that in some groups, male great apes are not all hostile.In each great ape group, in addition to a leading "silverback", there are one or several subordinate "blackbacks" under it, as well as young or young male great apes and female great apes. Silverbacks also sometimes tolerate other male great apes mating with females.She also found that a group of great apes was actually composed of five adult male "bare rods". Recently, the results of the nearly 20-year investigation of the Bonobo black ape by the Japanese scholar Kanaron Takashi revealed that the Bonobo black ape has many different habits from ordinary black apes.He observed that females lead their young to form the "core" of the ape group, and that the leading female is often authoritative, and even young males are subject to her domination.In sexual relations, the female is in an active position, and she can express her desire to mate with at least 20 gestures and calls.Puberty females will actively approach males and ask to mate with them.They also take some food from the male after mating - sugar cane.Such barter-style sexual behavior is common in this ape group.Pups often imitate the "face-to-face" copulation of their parents, which is common among Bonobo black apes but less common among common black, brown, and great apes.Females have a 46-day menstrual cycle and, when mature, spend almost half of each year in estrus -- a swollen sex skin that turns pink.It has a five-year reproductive cycle like the common black ape, but unlike it, females are able to mate again a year after their cubs are born. Within the group, there is no female rivalry among Bonobo males, and it is this atmosphere of peace that allows large groups of hundreds of members to form.The mother-child bond of the Bonobo black ape lasts for life, and once the young females reach sexual maturity, they leave the original group and join other ape groups. In the composition of the groups and in the sexual relations we see considerable differences among the several species of apes, no doubt reflecting differences in degree of evolution.Mutual tolerance among male apes remains a prerequisite for a stable ape population, a factor that maintains a strong group in the struggle for survival.Only a stable group life can promote the development of social life and the development of close relationships among members of the group.At this point, the black ape and Popubo black ape showed a high level of evolution, which undoubtedly reflects the evolution process experienced by our ancient ancestors. And what about the interrelationships between groups of black apes?According to Goodall's observations, each black ape group has its own activity and feeding area, with an area between 13 and 21 square kilometers.During the day, there are often some male black apes patrolling the boundary of the activity area to prevent members of other ape groups from breaking into it. If they encounter another group of apes during the inspection, if the other party is a group, they usually confront each other and threaten each other, and then each retreats.If the intruders are single or only female black apes with young, the patrols will attack and even kill them.This "border dispute" seems to indicate that the relationship between black ape groups is far from harmonious, but antagonistic. During his observations, Goodall found that a group of black apes began to split in 1970, and by 1972 it became two completely opposite groups.The original group occupied the northern half of the original activity area, and the small group that split off occupied the southern half. Soon afterwards, "border disputes" began to occur. Incidents of large groups hunting and killing members of small groups occurred from time to time. Until the end of 1977, The members of the small group are completely wiped out by the large group, and the entire activity area is again occupied by the large group. According to Fossier's observations, no such fierce confrontation has been found among great ape groups.But groups are not stable, but are in flux.There is even a tendency for the two groups to merge into one.This is mainly due to the loss of a female great ape in one of the groups. In the Bonobo group of black apes, the phenomenon that a certain male black ape kills other male black apes, as in the common black apes, has not been observed, nor has the phenomenon of hunting for meat.