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Infant Chimpanzee and Human Child: A Classic 1935 Comparative Study of Ape Emotions and Intelligence
This edition presents the first complete English translation of N.N. Ladygina-Kohts' journal chronicling her pioneering work with the chimpanzee, Joni. The journal entries describe and compare the instincts, emotions, play, and habits of her son Rudy and Joni as each develops. First published in Moscow in 1935 as a memoir in the Darwin Museum Series, this edition has 120 photographs, 46 drawings and an introduction by Allen and Beatrix Gardner of the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Nevada, as well as a Foreword and an Afterword by Lisa A. Parr, Signe Preuschoft, and Frans B. M. de Waal of the Living Links Center at Emory University.
- GenresNonfiction
452 pages, Hardcover
First published March 14, 2002
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January 28, 2025
A 1935 BOOK OF OBSERVATIONS OF A CHIMP FROM 1913-1916
Editor Frans B.M. de Waal wrote in the Foreword to this (newly republished) 1935 book, “A primatological masterpiece… The book confirms how far we have come in our understanding of chimpanzees, yet reminds us of how it all began. That Kohts amassed so much detailed information on her young chimpanzee, Joni, shows that she was fully aware that every drop of knowledge would be appreciated… At the same time that American behaviorists were closing the door resolutely on the mind and representing animals as robots devoid of thoughts and feelings, Kohts opened her heart and eyes to every nuance of sensitivity, empathy, and intelligence in her young charge.”
Allen and Beatrix Gardner write in their Introduction to the English edition, “Nadezhda Nikolaevna Ladygina-Kohts (1889-1963) received her degree from Moscow University in 1917, specializing in comparative psychology. In 1913… she opened the Psychological Laboratory of the Darwin Museum with her studies of the infant chimpanzee, Joni… Koht’s major objective was to test Joni’s perceptual and conceptual abilities… In 1925, Koht’s own son, Roody, was born… Joni was very young. Infant chimpanzees of that age are helpless and dependent… Perceptive as she was, Kohts recognized the dramatic difference between Roody’s life and Joni’s… she seems to have overlooked the negative effect of Joni’s narrow world, which constrained his growth and made him less of a chimpanzee.”
Kohts wrote in the Preface, “This research is based on my own observations of a chimpanzee, Joni, from 1913 to 1916, and of my son, Roody, from 1925 to 1929, from this birth to when he was 4 years of age… the notes describing the chimpanzee’s behavior on the one hand and that of my son on the other were separated by a 12-year-period… therefore, they could not influence each other. I was intentionally trying not to train Joni and to teach him as few human traits as I could; the goal was to observe his natural and more spontaneous behavior.” (Pg. 3-4)
She observed, “for the infant chimpanzee, as well as for the human child, it does not take much to make him entirely happy. But, as for the child, the sun of happiness becomes dimmed instantly when a tiny cloud emerges, and the reason for his sadness are endless.” (Pg. 62)
Later, she notes, “When punished for a misdemeanor, Joni never cried, although he obviously got angry. One time, after he had bitten a boy, the chimpanzee was punished by whipping; he was beaten so harshly that the whip literally swished in the air. Nevertheless, he remained motionless and did not even show any intent to flee; he only curved his lips and scratched himself at the most painful spots sometimes.” (Pg. 70)
She reports, “I tried to train the chimpanzee to use a bed vessel by sitting him on the vessel when the defecation or urination started. He was about to get used to this habit, and after a week of training, he tried on his own to sit on the vessel when the need arose. However, he spent most of his time in the cage without supervision, in which case he fulfilled his needs where he pleased; this prevented the new habit from being established… the fastidiousness of the chimpanzee is 'specific,’ because I often observed him, when he was bored in his cage with nothing to do, spreading his feces over the white walls of the cage.” (Pg. 77-78) She notes, “I often heard the chimpanzee snore the way humans do.” (Pg. 90)
She suggests, “The chimpanzee is… afraid of big, burly people. The first days of his life in our house, Joni feared only men and obeyed their orders instantly, while women had to struggle with him for hours to make him perform the same action. It was obvious from observation of our day-to-day life that Joni avoided men and preferred to make friends with women.” (Pg. 100)
She recounts, “When he is being punished … as in the case when he bit a country girl, he becomes angry and grabs the punishment tool, leaving intact the primary perpetrators, my hands, obviously trying to avoid hurting them with his teeth. After I scared him with the mask, fur, or broom, Joni gained access to these things and fiercely destroyed them, at the same time leaving me intact. I am certain that sometimes Joni expressed his sympathy to me.” (Pg. 121)
She observes, “Joni happens not only to feel offended by people, but also hold a grudge against them. He will not take even the tastiest food from the hands of a person who has driven him into the cage, and when this person tries to resume friendly communications with him, Joni hides… turns his back to the person as if unwilling even to look at the person, or gloomily rejects the signs of affection. But this mood is fleeting, and it takes some sincere patience to restore peace and his amiable disposition toward the offender.” (Pg. 130)
She points out, “We see profound meaning in this peculiar construction of traps, snares, strangling loops, yokes, collars… and other devices that hold the chimpanzee in detainment and obstruct his release… You can only wonder how, in captivity, with the chimpanzee supplied with everything he needs and a comfortable, almost parasitic, life, the powerful manifestations of the self-preservation instinct still remain strong. This compelling call urges the little chimpanzee to use, in his self-development play, the most unusual things and the more artificial situations.” (Pg. 146)
In the chapter, ‘Using Tools,’ she reports, “Joni throws a stone at his reflection in a mirror… Joni uses tools as an auxiliary means of reaching faraway objects… he uses a thin stick or straw to scare cockroaches from cracks in his cage or to get thick liquids from small vials. Joni usually used a metal nail file for digging small pits in the ground. Joni applies a knife when he cannot bite the plaster off the walls…” (Pg. 180)
She states, “Joni imitates a dog’s barking very well, but I have not noticed … any attempts on his part to reproduce or imitate even a semblance of intelligible human sounds.” (Pg. 201)
She admits, “Paradoxical as it might sound, I have to admit that, in my heart, both of them, Joni and Roody, take up an almost equal space. But, my exploring mind keeps pestering me to define the limits of their proximity in various forms of their appearance and behavior.” (Pg. 205)
She summarizes, “The infant chimpanzee craves companionship with animals, but his behavior toward weaker creatures evolves into chasing them and killing them, while they could be his true companions and entertain, if not serve, him.” (Pg. 396)
The treatment of Joni will often seem quite ‘cruel’ to us, today. But this book is nevertheless of great interest to those studying the development of primatology, and our relations with chimpanzees.
Editor Frans B.M. de Waal wrote in the Foreword to this (newly republished) 1935 book, “A primatological masterpiece… The book confirms how far we have come in our understanding of chimpanzees, yet reminds us of how it all began. That Kohts amassed so much detailed information on her young chimpanzee, Joni, shows that she was fully aware that every drop of knowledge would be appreciated… At the same time that American behaviorists were closing the door resolutely on the mind and representing animals as robots devoid of thoughts and feelings, Kohts opened her heart and eyes to every nuance of sensitivity, empathy, and intelligence in her young charge.”
Allen and Beatrix Gardner write in their Introduction to the English edition, “Nadezhda Nikolaevna Ladygina-Kohts (1889-1963) received her degree from Moscow University in 1917, specializing in comparative psychology. In 1913… she opened the Psychological Laboratory of the Darwin Museum with her studies of the infant chimpanzee, Joni… Koht’s major objective was to test Joni’s perceptual and conceptual abilities… In 1925, Koht’s own son, Roody, was born… Joni was very young. Infant chimpanzees of that age are helpless and dependent… Perceptive as she was, Kohts recognized the dramatic difference between Roody’s life and Joni’s… she seems to have overlooked the negative effect of Joni’s narrow world, which constrained his growth and made him less of a chimpanzee.”
Kohts wrote in the Preface, “This research is based on my own observations of a chimpanzee, Joni, from 1913 to 1916, and of my son, Roody, from 1925 to 1929, from this birth to when he was 4 years of age… the notes describing the chimpanzee’s behavior on the one hand and that of my son on the other were separated by a 12-year-period… therefore, they could not influence each other. I was intentionally trying not to train Joni and to teach him as few human traits as I could; the goal was to observe his natural and more spontaneous behavior.” (Pg. 3-4)
She observed, “for the infant chimpanzee, as well as for the human child, it does not take much to make him entirely happy. But, as for the child, the sun of happiness becomes dimmed instantly when a tiny cloud emerges, and the reason for his sadness are endless.” (Pg. 62)
Later, she notes, “When punished for a misdemeanor, Joni never cried, although he obviously got angry. One time, after he had bitten a boy, the chimpanzee was punished by whipping; he was beaten so harshly that the whip literally swished in the air. Nevertheless, he remained motionless and did not even show any intent to flee; he only curved his lips and scratched himself at the most painful spots sometimes.” (Pg. 70)
She reports, “I tried to train the chimpanzee to use a bed vessel by sitting him on the vessel when the defecation or urination started. He was about to get used to this habit, and after a week of training, he tried on his own to sit on the vessel when the need arose. However, he spent most of his time in the cage without supervision, in which case he fulfilled his needs where he pleased; this prevented the new habit from being established… the fastidiousness of the chimpanzee is 'specific,’ because I often observed him, when he was bored in his cage with nothing to do, spreading his feces over the white walls of the cage.” (Pg. 77-78) She notes, “I often heard the chimpanzee snore the way humans do.” (Pg. 90)
She suggests, “The chimpanzee is… afraid of big, burly people. The first days of his life in our house, Joni feared only men and obeyed their orders instantly, while women had to struggle with him for hours to make him perform the same action. It was obvious from observation of our day-to-day life that Joni avoided men and preferred to make friends with women.” (Pg. 100)
She recounts, “When he is being punished … as in the case when he bit a country girl, he becomes angry and grabs the punishment tool, leaving intact the primary perpetrators, my hands, obviously trying to avoid hurting them with his teeth. After I scared him with the mask, fur, or broom, Joni gained access to these things and fiercely destroyed them, at the same time leaving me intact. I am certain that sometimes Joni expressed his sympathy to me.” (Pg. 121)
She observes, “Joni happens not only to feel offended by people, but also hold a grudge against them. He will not take even the tastiest food from the hands of a person who has driven him into the cage, and when this person tries to resume friendly communications with him, Joni hides… turns his back to the person as if unwilling even to look at the person, or gloomily rejects the signs of affection. But this mood is fleeting, and it takes some sincere patience to restore peace and his amiable disposition toward the offender.” (Pg. 130)
She points out, “We see profound meaning in this peculiar construction of traps, snares, strangling loops, yokes, collars… and other devices that hold the chimpanzee in detainment and obstruct his release… You can only wonder how, in captivity, with the chimpanzee supplied with everything he needs and a comfortable, almost parasitic, life, the powerful manifestations of the self-preservation instinct still remain strong. This compelling call urges the little chimpanzee to use, in his self-development play, the most unusual things and the more artificial situations.” (Pg. 146)
In the chapter, ‘Using Tools,’ she reports, “Joni throws a stone at his reflection in a mirror… Joni uses tools as an auxiliary means of reaching faraway objects… he uses a thin stick or straw to scare cockroaches from cracks in his cage or to get thick liquids from small vials. Joni usually used a metal nail file for digging small pits in the ground. Joni applies a knife when he cannot bite the plaster off the walls…” (Pg. 180)
She states, “Joni imitates a dog’s barking very well, but I have not noticed … any attempts on his part to reproduce or imitate even a semblance of intelligible human sounds.” (Pg. 201)
She admits, “Paradoxical as it might sound, I have to admit that, in my heart, both of them, Joni and Roody, take up an almost equal space. But, my exploring mind keeps pestering me to define the limits of their proximity in various forms of their appearance and behavior.” (Pg. 205)
She summarizes, “The infant chimpanzee craves companionship with animals, but his behavior toward weaker creatures evolves into chasing them and killing them, while they could be his true companions and entertain, if not serve, him.” (Pg. 396)
The treatment of Joni will often seem quite ‘cruel’ to us, today. But this book is nevertheless of great interest to those studying the development of primatology, and our relations with chimpanzees.
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