Abstract
AN experimental laboratory for the observation of behavioural development and adjustment, growth and maturation of chimpanzees has recently been established at the Yale Laboratories of Primate Biology, Orange Park, Florida. Infants are to be separated from their mothers at birth and reared under controlled conditions as subjects of a special research by Dr. Henry W. Nissen, assistant director. Up to March 1940, Prof. R. M. Yerkes records (Science, 91; April 5, 1940), 34 infants have been born in the colony, which contains 27 individuals of known birth-date and recorded life-history out of a total population of 47, ranging in age from four days to twenty-seven years. Several of these chimpanzees have resided in the colony for 8-14 years. Though the normal life of this great ape in captivity has not been determined, it is indicated that the reproductive life may exceed thirty years, while probably in favourable conditions the individual may live for fifty years. The average interval between generations in the breeding colony is almost exactly nine years.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Observation of Chimpanzees. Nature 145, 890 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/145890b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/145890b0