By eight months, the calf begins to use its trunk to grasp grasses and even suck up water to bathe itself. To maintain a healthy growth rate, the calf consumes three gallons of milk every day, gaining 22-26 pounds a week. ![]() This phenomenon is known as “allmothering” and the bond between family units, or clans, lasts even after calves are fully weaned at four years of age. At this age, the calf is dependent on the mother and the other sub-adult females in the group for care and protection. Their trunk-like any muscle-needs to be exercised until the calf musters enough strength, they suck on their trunk to self-soothe-much like a human infant sucks their thumb. "In short, the language retardation in Donald may have brought an end to the study," the authors write.At birth, the calf is nearly blind, and its skin is pinkish-gray the light color helps regulate its body temperature under the hot summer sun. Finally, one other possibility comes to mind, the authors point out: While Gua showed no signs of learning human languages, her brother Donald had begun imitating Gua's chimp noises. Or perhaps it was the fact that Gua was becoming stronger and less manageable, and that the Kelloggs feared she might harm her human brother. ![]() It could be that the Kelloggs were simply exhausted from nine months of nonstop parenting and scientific work. But as for why, the Kelloggs, who are so specific on so many other points, leave the reader wondering. We are told only that the study was terminated on March 28, 1932, when Gua was returned to the Orange Park primate colony through a gradual rehabilitating process. Our final concern is why the project ended when it did. As the Psychological Record authors describe: The experiment, however, ended rather abruptly and mysteriously. As such, the Psychological Record authors write, the Kelloggs' experiment "probably succeeded better than any study before its time in demonstrating the limitations heredity placed on an organism regardless of environmental opportunities as well as the developmental gains that could be made in enriched environments." ![]() They raised the two babies in exactly the same way, in addition to conducting an exhaustive list of scientific experiments that included subjects such as "blood pressure, memory, body size, scribbling, reflexes, depth perception, vocalization, locomotion, reactions to tickling, strength, manual dexterity, problem solving, fears, equilibrium, play behavior, climbing, obedience, grasping, language comprehension, attention span and others," the Psychological Record authors note.įor a while, Gua actually excelled at these tests compared to Donald.īut eventually, as NPR notes, Gua hit a cognitive wall: No amount of training or nurturing could overcome the fact that, genetically, she was a chimpanzee. Abandoning a human child in the wilderness would be ethically reprehensible, Kellogg knew, so he opted to experiment on the reverse scenario-bringing an infant animal into civilization.įor the next nine months, for 12 hours a day and seven days a week, Kellogg and his wife conducted tireless tests on Donald and Gua. Since his student days, Kellogg had dreamed of conducting such an experiment. He was fascinated by wild children, or those raised with no human contact, often in nature. ![]() Could a chimp grow up to behave like a human? Or even think it was a human? As later described in the Psychological Record, the idea was to see how environment influenced development. The couple planned to raise the chimp, Gua, alongside their own baby boy, Donald. On June 26, 1931, comparative psychologist Winthrop Niles Kellogg and his wife welcomed a new arrival home: not a human infant, but a baby chimpanzee.
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