A CHIMPANZEE MOTHER

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 23, 27 January 1923, Page 12

A CHIMPANZEE MOTHER

FIGHTS FOR NEW BABY.

"Suzette," the trained chimpanzee in the Bronz Zoo, has aiother baby, and the keepers fear that she will kill it, juat as she killed the other two, by forgetting to give it food (says the "New York Evening Post.")

The newest addition to the Zoo arrived yesterday and when the keepers went to Suzette's cage they found her clutching the baby to her. When they entered the cage Suzette bounded far up out of reach, carrying the baby. Scientists think that a strange thing has happened to Suzette's brain. In a recent article in the "Bulletin," published by the New York Zoological Society^ Dr. William T. Hornaday, director of the Zoo, expressed the opinion that Suzette'had been overtrained. The chimpanzee was on the stage for a long time and did the \ most remarkable stunts, betraying in some actions a high degree of intelligence. ■ ■ : Dr. Hornaday thought that this training might have been instilled into the simian brain at the expense of more fundamental things, -and that some of Suzette's maternal instincts were misplaced in the process. There can be no doubt that the chimpanzee had some maternal instinct, for her savage defence of the baby proves ithat she still understands that she must protect it. She has lost, however, her understanding that nourishment is necessary, and therefore does not feed the baby herself, nor ■will she allow any one else to feed it.

The blindness of Suzette's affection was shown when the last baby was born. She refused to feed the little chimpanzee, just as she is starving this one. The baby finally died from lack of food, and Suzette, not knowing and not caring whether the baby was dead or alive, carried the. carcase ai'ound for. days un■til, in desperation, the keepers tricked it away from her while she was asleep; Opiates proved absolutely useless, for Suzette would come out of the,most complete coma in a roaring rage the moment any one touched 1 the baby.