When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals (42 page)

199 ". . . bowerbirds and birds of paradise . . ." Both are members of the family Paradiseidae.

199 ". . . the satin bowerbird . . ." Welty and Baptista, Life of Birds, pp. 278-80.

200 Beehler, Naturalist in New Guinea, p. 45.

201 "'. . . control of the lek . . .'" Ibid., p. 147.

201 "New Guinea human . . ." It is also worth keeping in mind that plumage may send a message to someone other than a potential mate or rival. Beehler and colleagues recently made the discovery that the hooded pitohui, also of New Guinea, has a powerful neurotoxin in its bright orange and black feathers, which is beheved to protect it from predators. Here the plumage pre-

NOTES

sumably has, at least in part, a warning message. See John P. Dumbacher, Bruce M. Beehler, Thomas F. Spande, H. Martin Garaffo, and John W. Daly, "Homobatrachotoxin in the Genus Pitohui: Chemical Defense in Birds?" Science 258 (October 30, 1992), pp. 799-801. Natives of New Guinea have long known that pitohuis have "bitter" skin.

202 "Alpha, a chimp . . ." Paul H. Schiller, "Figural Preferences in the Drawings of a Chimpanzee," Jomtial of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 44 (1951), pp. 101-11.

202 Desmond Morris, Animal Days (London: Jonathan Cape, 1979), pp. 197-98. Also Morris, The Biology of Art: A Study of the Picture-Making Behavior of the Great Apes and Its Relationship to Human Art.

202 "One chimp, Moja . . ." Kathleen Beach, Roger S. Fouts, and Deborah H. Fouts, "Representational Art in Chimpanzees," Friends of Washoe 3 (Summer 1984), pp. 2-4; Roger Fouts interview; also A. Gardner and B. Gardner, "Comparative Psychology and Language Acquisition," Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 309 (1978), pp. 37-76. Cited in Gucwa and Ehmann.

205 Gucwa and Ehmann, To Whom It May Concern, pp. 119-20.

206 ". . . San Diego Zoo . . ." Ibid., pp. 93-97.

206 Chadwick, The Fate of the Elephant, pp. 12-15.

207 Pryor, Lads Before the Wind, pp. 234-53; Karen Pry^or, Richard Haag, and Joseph O'Reilly, "The Creative Porpoise: Training for Novel Behavior," Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 12 (1969), pp. 653-61. For the journal article all references to Hou as "she" were changed to "it."

It is interesting to see how anecdotal information was transformed into acceptable data in this story. Despite the presence of careful obser\'ers, MaUa's creativity had the status of an anecdote. Hou's almost identical display of creativity was not, presumably in large part because it was expected. The recording of Hou's actions on film is irrelevant: the vast majority of animal behavior that makes its way into the literature is not documented in this way.

209 "In Japanese monkey troops . . ." Toshisada Nishida, "Local Traditions and Cultural Transmission," in Primate Societies, Barbara B. Smuts, Dorothy L. Cheney, Robert M. Seyfarth, Richard W. Wrangham and Thomas T. Struhsaker, eds. (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1986), pp. 462-74; Marvin Harris, Our Kind (New York: Harper & Row, 1989), p. 63.

209 Thomas, "Reflections: The Old Way."

209 ". . . olive baboons . . ." Strum, Almost Human, pp. 128-33. This tradition of intensive hunting for meat later vanished.

209 "A curious example . . ." De Waal, Chimpanzee Politics, p. 135.

210 "In the University of Washington . . ." Roger S. Fouts and Deborah H. Fouts, "Chimpanzees' Use of Sign Language," 28-41 in Cavaheri and Singer, eds.. The Great Ape Project, pp. 37-38.

210 ". . . 'just interesting oddities.' " Dawkins, Selfish Gene, pp. 203-04.

210 "Cultural transmission may . . ." Richard Dawkins coined the word me7ne to mean a bit or collection of bits of information that are behaviorally transferred from one individual to another, including such things as tunes, techniques, fashions, and phrases. It is part of the current scientific fashion to

XOfES

ascribe a great deal of human and animal behavior to genetic causes. Until we are better able to tell a meme from a gene, such conclusions are often unwarranted.

211 Krutch. Best of Two Worlcb, pp. 92-94.

211 ". . . elephants in Kenya . . ." Chadwick, The Fate of the Elephant, p. 63.

Chapter 11: The Religious Impulse, Justice, and the Inexpressible

212 "We are all . . ." Darwin once wrote himself a note: "Never use the words higher and lower. " More Letters of Charles Darwin, edited by F. Darwin and A. C. Seward (London: Murray, 1903), Vol. 1, p. 114n.

213 Jolly, Lemur Behavior, p. 36.

213 ". . . awe as a form of shame." Nathanson, Shame and Pride, p. 474.

213 Thomas, Hidden Life of Dogs, x\ii-x\iii.

214 "Nim Chimpsky learned . . ." Terrace, Nim, p. 171. 214 De Waal, Chimpanzee Politics, pp. 171-72.

214 "In another incident . . ." Ibid., p. 207.

215 Thomas, Hidden Life of Dogs, pp. 49-51.

215 ". . . coatimundis . . ." Gilbert, Chiilo, p. 105-06.

216 Terrace, M///, pp. 185-86.

216 "Signing apes have . . ." The chimpanzees in the later sign language projects of the Gardners and the gorillas taught by Patterson did have native signers among their teachers. In no case were the lead researchers fluent signers, however.

217 Terrace, Nim, Appendix B, "Recruiting Nim's Teachers," pp. 392-95.

217 "Moja, who knows . . ." Roger Fonts, interview by Susan McCarthy, December 10, 1993.

217 Donald R. Griffin: "The Cognitive Dimensions of Animal Communication," in Fortschritte Der Zoologie, 31 (1985), pp. 471-82.

218 Savage-Rumbaugh, Ape Language, p. 337.

218 Jim Nollman, Ani?nal Dreaming: The Art and Science of Interspecies Communication, p. 105. Cf. the authoritative article in The Encyclopedia of Mammals: "It is clear from its continuous nature and ordered sequence that the song potentially contains much information, but its precise function is not known. Most evidence at present indicates that the prime function of the song is sexual." David Macdonald, ed. (New York: Facts on File Publications, 1984), p. 229.

219 Schaller, Serengeti Lion, p. 50.

220 Joyce Poole quoted in Chadwick, Fate of the Elephant, pp. 75-76.

220 " 'On meeting a gorilla . . .' " George B. Schaller, 77?^ Last Panda (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1972), pp. 79-80.

221 " 'Certain usages . . .' " Terrace, Nim, pp. 222-26.

222 "As Julian Huxley . . ." Quoted in Krutch, Best of Two Worlds.

223 Joseph Wood Krutch, The Great Chain of Life (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1956), p. 106.

266

XOTES

224 L\Tin Rogers, inten-iews by Susan McCarthy, July 15, 1993, and May 11, 1994.

225 Thomas, "Reflections: The Old Way," p. 100.

Conclusion: Sharing the World v^ith Feeling Creatures

227 Rousseau from Lester G. Crocker, ed., The Social Co7itract and Discourse on

the Origin and Foundation of Inequality Among Mankind (New York: W ashing-

ton Square Press, 1967), p. 172. 227 Brigid Brophy: "In Pursuit of a Fantas\%" m Animals. Men and Moi-als, pp.

125-45, S. and R. Godlo\-itch, eds. (New York: Taplinger Publishing Co.,

1972), p. 129.

227 The quote is from Darwin's The Descent of Man. Quoted here from Marian Scholtmeijer, Animal Victims in Modem Fiction: From Sanctity to Sacrifice (Toronto: Universit}- of Toronto Press, 1993).

228 First pubHshed in the Ama-ican Scholar, Vol. 40, Xo. 3 (Summer 1971) as "Antivivisection: The Reluctant Hydra," and reprinted with the title "A Defense of Vnisection" in Animal Rights and Human Obligations, Tom Regan and Peter Singer, eds. (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1976), pp. 163-69.

228 "As late as the 1930s . . ." Xo doubt he did. He had even greater problems. At the end of his book Man the Unknon-n (New York & London: Harper, 1935), on p. 318, this X'obel laureate wTote:

"There remains the unsolved problem of the immense number of defectives and criminals. They are an enormous burden for the part of the population that has remained normal. Gigantic sums are now required to maintain prisons and insane asylums and protect the public against gangsters and lunatics. WTiy do we preserve these useless and harmful beings? The abnormal prevent the development of the normal. \\\vy should societ}- not dispose of the criminals and the insane in a more economical manner? . . . Perhaps prisons should be aboHshed. They could be replaced by smaller and less expensive institutions. The conditioning of petty^ criminals with the whip, or some more scientific procedure, followed by a short stay in hospital, would probably suffice to insure order. Those who have murdered, robbed while armed with automatic pistol or machine gun, kidnapped children, despoiled the poor of their savings, misled the pubUc in important matters, should be humanely and economically disposed of in small euthanasic institutions supplied with proper gases. A similar treatment could be advanta-geouslv appHed to the insane, guilt}- of criminal acts. Modern society- should not hesitate to organize itself with reference to the normal indi\idual. Philosophical systems and sentimental prejudices miist give way before such a necessity-." Hitier's doctor, Karl Brandt, in his trial in X'uremberg, offered this book in his defense.

229 "\Mien animal psychologist . . ." S. Begley and J. Cooper Ramo, "X'otjust a Pretty Face," Xeu'su-eek (November 1, 1993), p. 67.

229 "Recently a steer . . ." "Steer Flees Slaughter and Is Last Seen Going Thataway," Neu- York Times. May 24, 1990.

XOTES

230 "Perhaps just . . ." A German woman leaving a theater performance of T^e D/V//7 of.inne Frank was heart! to say to her companion: "That one, at least, should not have been killed."

230 "Modern philosophers . . ." The new school of cognitive ethology, started by Donald R. Griffin, is an exception, and many of the biologists and animal behaviorists who work in this area, people such as Gordon Burghardt, Dorothy Cheney, Robert Seyfarth, Carolyn Ristau, Marc Bekoff, Dale Jamieson, Alison Jolly and many others, would agree with the position that animals lead emotional lives, though they might not all agree on how complex and sophisticated they are.

230 This passage from hitroduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation by Jeremy Bentham (Chapter 18, sec. 1) as well as selections from his "A Utilitarian View" and John Stuart Mill's "A Defence of Bentham," can be found in the useful collection edited by P. Singer and T. Regan, Animal Rights and Hiwian Obligations (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1976).

231 ". . . to a spider . . ." P. N. Witt, "Die Wirkung einer einmaligen Gabe von Largactil auf den Netzbau Der Spinne Zilla-x-notata," in Monatschrifi filer Psychiatrie und Neurologie, 129 (1955), Nos. 1-3, pp. 123-28.

232 Roberts, The Scientific Conscience: Reflections on the Modem Biologist and Humanism, pp. 106-07.

232 " 'The details of his . . .' " Quoted by Dr. White himself on p. 166 of the article cited earlier in this chapter.

232 Goodall in The Great Ape Project, Cavalieri and Singer, eds., pp. 15-16.

233 Chadwick, The Fate of the Elephant. Quoted by E. M. Thomas in "The Battle for the Elephants," New York Review of Books (March 24, 1994), p. 5.

233 "'In the distance . . .'" Somadeva, Kathasaritsagara, Durgaprasad Parab, ed. (Bombay, India: Nirnaya Sagara Press, 1903), Ch. 64, w. 4-12. See, too, the 12-volume translation of The Ocean of Story, translated by C. H. Tawney, edited by N. M. Penzer (London: Chas. J. Sawyer), Vol. 5, 1926, pp. 138ff. The editor, p. 34 of the Introduction, notes that "India is indeed the home of storytelling. It was from here that the Persians learned the art, and passed it on to the Arabians. From the Middle East the tales found their way to Constantinople and Venice, and finally appeared in the pages of Boccaccio, Chaucer and La Fontaine." The story is old, probably predating the Christian era, being found in the Sanskrit Pancatantra. (In the Pancatantra version, there are a few more details about the mongoose: "He left behind a mongoose that he had raised just like a son, keeping him in his house in the room where the sacred fire was kept and feeding him on kernels of corn and the Hke." (Franklin Edgerton: The Pancatantra Reconstructed. Vol. 2: Introduction and Translation. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1924. p. 403.)

234 Jan Harold Brunvand, The Mexican Pet (New York: W. W. Norton, 1986), p. 44.

234 "We cannot know . . ." See M. B. Emeneau, "A Classical Indian Folk-Tale as a Reported Modern Event: The Brahman and the Mongoose." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 83, No. 3, September 1940, pp. 503-13. This reports a modern event that mirrors the classic story. Emeneau

268 •

NOTES

concludes that the modern report "is one of actual events." On August 17, 1994,1 spoke with Professor Emeneau (now in his nineties). He told me that his associate, the anthropologist David Mandelbaum, interviewed the woman whose mongoose it was. Emeneau was working with these hill tribes, the Kotas of the Nilgiris in South India during 1935-38. He told me that because the storytellers incorporate so much material from the plains (the Kotas live on a 7,000-foot plateau), including literar)' motifs, it is impossible to know for certain whether the event actually happened or not. He has changed his mind several times over the years, and is now unable to decide whether it did or did not happen. The woman, however, claims to have been an eyewitness—in fact, the protagonist of the story (in the modern version she kills the mongoose). Legend or fact, the stor\^ resonates with the modern reader, at least with this modern reader.

234 The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, with an English translation by John C. Rolfe. 3 vols. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984, vol. 1, pp. 421-27). Only fragments of the Wonders of Eg)'pt exist. A very similar account, from the same source, was made famous in Europe in the sixteenth century by Michel Montaigne. See The Complete Essays of Montaigne, trans, by Donald M. Frame (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1989, pp. 350-51). For more on Apion, see Pauly's Realencyclopadie der classischen Alter-tumswissenschaft, Vol. 1, pt. 2 (1894), Article on Apion 3, esp. p. 2805. The very fact that he claimed to have been an eyewitness to the event is used, here, against his credibilit)'.

236 " 'This is the lion . . .' " There is considerable literature on this topic. See August Marx, Griechische Marchen von dankha?-en Tieren iind ve9-wandtes (Stuttgart: Verlag von W. Kohlhammer, 1889). On p. 58 he points out that the famous Brehma (Tierl. I, pp. 369 and 378) leaves it unclear whether he thinks the story' of Androcles is possible or not. St. Hieronymus also takes a thorn out of the paw of a lion (p. 61 for sources). See, too, the excellent book by Otto Keller: Thiere des classischen Alterthums in cultiirgeschichtlicher Beziehiing (Innsbn'.ck: Verlag der Wagner'schen Universitatsbuchhandlimg, 1887). He is especially good on dolphins.