throughout history stories of humans being raised by animals have fascinated mankind the fell children have found their way into human culture throughout the ages from tarzan all the way back to romulus and remus suckling from the she-wolf infants seemingly offer a blank slate upon which language culture nationality and morality are inscribed throughout their development because of this child development is a miracle of learning and as such it has not only fascinated the likes of rudyard kipling but also that of scientists and one such scientist would devise an experiment but instead of putting a child into the wild to be raised by animals turn the tables and take one of our closest relatives of the animal kingdom and raise it as a human today we're looking at the ape and the child experiment welcome to the dark side of science our story starts on the abarro colony in cuba in 1930 with the birth of a female chimpanzee on the 15th of november the baby chimp and her mother and father were donated to the yerkes national primate research center not long after her birth the research center was headed by eugenicist robert yerkes and was used for medical research into comparative psychology the baby chimpanzee was given the name gua and in june 1931 she was forcibly removed from her mother's cage and was sent off to a new home at the age of seven and a half months for a comparative experiment her new family was scientists luella and winfrault kellogg and their 10-month old son donald but before we carry on here's some background information to the kelloggs and why this young chimp became a resident in their house when frapp and luella had married in 1920 the couple had met in indiana university while studying winfrop was involved in a very diverse set of research subjects but throughout the 1920s focused on conditioning and learning he was fascinated with relative influence of nature and nurture on behaviour and if you could isolate the nurture element what if you could raise an animal a primate for example in the exact same way as you would an infant would the chimpanzee's development change or maybe would it even begin to act like a human he had been planning the concept of a comparative experiment during his post-graduate days at columbia when studying for his masters in 1927. kellogg during his time was fascinated with accounts of feral children living with wolves he believed that the infants learned to live like wolves because that was what their environment demanded of them thus if the tables were turned with a wild animal could nurture overall heredity and even humanize it the birth of kellogg's first child offered a unique opportunity and that was to comparatively raise the child alongside a primate kellogg advised if he could raise a chimp with donald their son like siblings he could then see the nature differences the chimpanzee wouldn't be a pet but treated in the exact same way as the human child they would be fed by bottle bathed clothed handled and pushed around in a pram it would be induced to walk upright the same as a child and would be corrected in its mistakes like a human as well the chimpanzee would also be taught and encouraged to eat with a spoon and to play like a child with children's toys the primates would not be allowed to learn in any other way than the human way thus allowing experiment chance to succeed in creating a human acting chimp in order to facilitate his experiment kellogg would seek help from yerkes he received the social science research council fellowship to work at the yale anthropod station in florida in order to prepare for his experiments in 1931. needless to say this would necessitate the kellogg's family moving to florida and not long after goa the chimpanzee would join the family to start this bizarre experiment gwa and donald were introduced at the ages of seven and a half and ten months respectively in the summer of 1931 and in every conceivable way the two were treated by winfrop and luella as if they were brother and sister straight away the kellogg started noting the physical and behavioral differences between the two infants the former was pretty easy as the two were different species of animals and with gwa having longer arms than donald and much greater physical abilities guar had nearly all of her teeth whereas donald only had two to discover the differences both physiologically and psychologically of the two kellogg fought up some strange and somewhat cruel experiment kellogg took great interest in the differences in how the two's bone structures developed to explore this he tested the differences by sound by hitting both donald and gwar's head with a spoon to try and hear a difference in the hardening of the skull he found that donald's head radiated a dull thud whereas gwas made a harsher sound hinting at the chimpanzee's bones being more hardened bizarrely kellogg had previously x-rayed gua and already knew her bone density was equal to that of a two-year-old human to ascertain the differences between the two's reaction times the kellogg's devised an interesting experiment both donald and the chimpanzee were placed in front of a motion picture camera this was to allow reviewing of the reactions later on after the two had settled and the camera was recording a revolver was fired in the air behind him both were startled and it was discovered that guar reacted more quickly than her human sibling the experiment was repeated a few months later with five other children ranging in age between 17 months and eight and a half years the basic day for the two test subjects consisted of a 7 a.
m wake up with 7 30 a. m breakfast then until 8 30 a. m sit with the adults at the breakfast table from nine in the morning until lunch the time will be filled out with controlled observations car rides outdoor and indoor play photographing and various experiments after lunch at 12 15 nap time followed by a bath time and between 15 30 and 1600 experiments observations playtime and tests to end up the day at dinner at around 1800 hours followed by bed at 18 30.
the days were not always run strictly to this plan as the kellogg's had various different engagements during the experiments initial two weeks guar's reflex behavior was recorded an interesting behavior was noted the chimpanzee had issues in her balance after standing upright there were two conclusions that the kellogg's family made about this the first being due to her still not being fully developed but the other conclusion was that she was becoming disorientated due to having to look up at her human observers more than if she was in the wild probably a bit of both as this new environment would definitely have been confusing to her guar adapted very quickly to her new sleeping arrangements a cot was constructed and was designed to be usable for an infant child with mattress clean linens and even night clothing when this was temporarily removed her reaction was predictable she began to cry out in despair guwah's reactions when sleepy were very characteristic of a human child when picked up she would try and cuddle up and when sat up her head would nod down only to come back up start up on a motion for the first two months guar napped more than donald mainly after meals but as she got older she slept less in a day eventually getting to the one nap has outlined in a day's schedule donald on the other hand was sleeping two or more hours in the afternoon nap time goals slept during the night without issues throughout the experiment something that from experience isn't something that a human child often does but as the experiment progressed she started to make a nest with her bedding a thing that chimpanzees do in the wild with twigs in trees she hadn't seen anyone else do this and thus showed the behavior was possibly hereditary or could be perceived as an infant playing in their bed in the night throughout the experiment both subjects were observed during their physical development donald had a walking age stroller this was because human infants don't develop walking until at least 10 months guar on the other hand could walk by the time she was with the kelloggs she also had a stroller but she used it as a toy instead of a walking aid interestingly guar was beginning to mimic the way humans walk adopting a more upright posture the chimp was showing much quicker level of development as donald for the age the experiment continued to observe the differences between the two in the way they interacted with their environment during the toddler months of childhood the beginnings of reading and language start to develop part of this is the ability to point at things that interest the infant and gwa exhibited these behaviors as well the two infants almost right from the start of the experiment seemed to enjoy each other's company with donald showing great delight in interacting with his new sister guar would hold out hands to donald stroking her hair as the experiment progressed it seemed like the two especially guar had become attached to each other always making a beeline for him when he entered the room and noticeably got more excited when playing with donald if gwar was admonished for doing something wrong donald would go up to her and hug the chimpanzee as donald's speech developed he was able to even say his sister's name when another older child called martha was introduced guar behaved similarly by hugging the three and a half year old smelling her hair and holding her hand interestingly gua was much more reserved and timid around human adults which to me sounds very similar to how a human child may act loud and excited with their peers but quiet and shy around adults gowhat's actions around new adults was even more shy and even at some times seemed fearful the pair's interactions with other animals was characteristically childlike as well with guar stroking their next door neighbor's cat and having seemingly no fear in approaching adult dogs much like a human child but this would change at the age of 11 months when a puppy barked at her after she had mistakenly taken the dog running as a game of tag from then on she became scared of almost all other animals including chickens cats and even birds in the trees guar's emotional responses to being admonished or punished for any number of minor behavioral infractions elicited an interesting response she would noticeably become distressed and then approach the experimenters for affection or a kiss as a form of forgiveness for committing the faux pas this is the similar type of behaviour seen in children but comes on later in social development at around 18 to 24 months this showed that guar was developing faster emotionally than donald and that she was learning very human-like behaviors she had mastered opening doors especially a swinging door a month before donald at the age of one year guar had figured out that light switches controlled the electric light bulbs as such when an adult put their hand up to the switch guar would look at the light in anticipation of its illumination the experimenters attempted to teach both how to play patty cake donald picked it up rather quickly and with little prompts happily followed the game guar on the other hand never learned how to play properly even though she was given daily opportunities to practice the two subjects also underwent potty training guar had more accidents than donald and was seemingly embarrassed when she made them eventually she would indicate that she wanted to go to the toilet by oohing and holding her genital area this would develop to her going to an experimenter and indicating by tugging on the adult's trousers throughout the experiment both for the subjects were given the opportunity to use a spoon like many other observations the kellogg's saw that gowar was way ahead in proficiency even donald by 13 months she was using the spoon for self-feeding with little mess in contrast to donald who had mastered the skill by around 18 months another test was devised where reward was placed behind a wire mesh attached to a door frame the only way to get to the reward is by the use of a hoe to drag it under a small gap in the mesh although both figured out the solution at around 100 attempts guar proved to be more consistent in her success rate the kellogg's wanted to probe into a vital part of the human experience next and that was something that makes us unique language but this part is where guar would fall behind and donald would develop some strange new behaviours guar's language development differed to that of a human child in the sense that she would communicate her wants physically like pointing to her mouth for food as we saw with her potty training the need to empty her bows was indicated non-verbally this was the same for when she wanted to play by grabbing one or both hands of her intended playmate she would also pull experimenter's hands to items she needed help with the vocal communication goa achieved was limited to oohs ars and grunts this is where donald exceeded as almost from the start of the experiment he was attempting to vocalize his emotions and needs this would develop into vocalizing actual words a feat guar failed to reach but something rather worrying began to become apparent in donald in fact his speech became stunted this is likely due to his lack of socializing outside the experimental setting and as such failed to pick up words discovered by interaction of one's peers he was only in possession of around six words but he did show signs of vocal imitation although not from his human carers but instead from his chimpanzee's sister the kellogg's noticed donald barking like a dog to communicate certain emotions the child would also screech scream and even ooh like an ape guar although not learning to speak words herself did learn the words spoken to her initially she would react just to the tone of the way the words were spoken but she began to show signs of being able to differentiate between different commands initially she would react to no and kiss but her word reaction vocabulary eventually expanded to around 95 words including the ability to point out parts of her anatomy when asked donald from the start of the experiment was slow to learn commands but this is probably attributable to his lower mobility compared to guar once he was more proficient with climbing and walking he would overtake his sister donald's apparent social and vocal issues caused concern by the ninth month of the experiment in luella and as such the experiment was abruptly brought to an end guar was evicted from a human household and sent back to robert yerkes on the 28th of march 1932 from there she would be the subject of a number of other experiments conducted by robert's wife ada but what of all the data collected from the study and what was the result of the nine-month ape and baby experiment well the kellogg's now back to being a conventional family moved back to indiana and the couple set about writing a book and publishing their study wim thorpe's results showed that he was disappointed that gwar had hit a wall of development he had generally hoped that immersing the ape into the human household would have created the reverse of a wild raised by wolves child it's undeniable that guar did develop many human-like behaviors such as walking more upright being relatively potty trained understanding a multitude of commands and even showing off her problem-solving skills ultimately gua was limited by the fact that she was a chimpanzee and that her heredity limited her ultimate ability of language essentially nurture can only take you so far until nature catches up initially the experiment went public when the article was published in the american psychological journal it was written in such a way as to appeal to as many people as possible this unsurprisingly generated a lot of interest in the press at the time and by the time a full book was released in 1933 the study and its ease of accessibility resulted in polarizing opinions many critics pointed out that gwa being pulled from her biological mother at such a young age and the suddenness of the ending of her adoption this no doubt must have been very traumatic for the young chimp to be ripped twice from her perceived home but the biggest criticism came from the use of donald as a test subject understandable after all it was on luella's insistence that the study be terminated the extended period of nine months in which donald was used in the experiments resulted in his development being stunted and needless to say this brings up questions of the study being ethical especially when feasibly a child wasn't even needed for gua to be raised with humans a number of the tests throughout the study were questionable where the child was frustrated in a broom experiment hit on the head and started with the gun but how did the subjects fare later on in life well unfortunately both participants lives would end in tragedy gua would die of pneumonia on december 21 1933 less than a year after she left the kellogg's family and just after turning three years old donald would live to the age of 43 when in 1973 he took his own life in all respects he had grown up healthy studying medicine and specializing in psychiatry whether his upbringing had contributed to his demise we will never know luella and winfrop would pass away in 1972.
