Further Adventures of Meshie

A Chimpanzee That Has Lived Most of Her Life
in a New York Suburban Home

By H. C. Raven

Associate Curator, Comparative and Human Anatomy,
Museum of Natural History

The Columbia University-American Museum Expedition to Africa was sent out in May of 1929 under the leadership of Mr. Raven to collect specimens of adult gorillas and other African primates for anatomical study. Meshie was secured by Mr. Raven while he was on this expedition.  —THE EDITORS

“MESHIE”

N a former article in Natural History (March-April, 1932) I told how I obtained Meshie in the French Cameroun of West Africa, where we lived for a year before coming to America.

Meshie is now (July 1933) four and one-half years old and weighs forty-six and one-half pounds. She still retains in good condition all her baby or deciduous teeth and, in addition, has her first permanent molars. The latter began to erupt when she was three years old, and all four were in place when she was three and one-half years. These first permanent molars correspond to the teeth often called six-year molars in human children.

In general appearance Meshie has not changed very much in the last two years, though she has undoubtedly lost some of her baby looks and habits. When she was younger, she wanted to be picked up and held much of the time. Now, although she likes to embrace her human acquaintances occasionally, she is more independent and wants to walk and run about seeing things for herself, tirelessly investigating whatever she sees but easily tiring of any particular object. She walks with more poise and more assurance.

USING A STICK AS A TOOL With her hand and foot she holds the stick and pulls the fruit within reach.

When she was very small, the hair on the sides of her head was long, like side whiskers, reaching below the level of her chin; now, this hair is comparatively short. Also the tuft of white hair so conspicuously standing out over the coccygeal region of the baby chimpanzee is no longer very noticeable. The skin of her hands, feet, and face, formerly of a uniform rich tan color, is now freckled with black, the black freckles becoming more numerous as time goes on. Anyone meeting Meshie now for the first time would be likely to think of her as a black-faced chimpanzee, for she has been outdoors day and night since spring and consequently her face and parts of her body where the hair is scant are suntanned so that they are very dark. A few months ago her face photographed white, but now it photographs black, due entirely to the effects of the sun.

In her mental development Meshie has changed more than in her appearance. She has learned many new things and can now keep an audience entertained for an hour or more, demonstrating to them how easy it is for a chimpanzee to acquire human accomplishments. One of these is her ability to free herself from almost any bonds or confinement imposed upon her. She was never caged nor chained until we left Africa and began our long journey home. At first I fastened her with pieces of cord and rattan, but they were unsatisfactory, for she would get them tangled and then break loose by alternately pulling and biting the cord. Later, when I reached the coast, I procured a dog chain. This was better, but it was not long before Meshie discovered that it, too, could be broken if she pulled hard enough. This was especially easy if the links were tangled. She found many ways of gaining her freedom other than actually breaking the chain; for instance, there was always some sort of collar on her neck, at first merely a bit of rope with several knots in it. She discovered that she could always get the knots undone if she picked and pulled at them first with her fingers, and then, as they loosened, used her teeth also. Leather dog collars were easily disposed of, for, if she found she could not undo the buckle, she pulled it to one side, wet the leather with her tongue until it stretched and broke, or could be slipped off over her head, or became long enough for her to get it into her mouth and bite it. Each time I left her tethered I wondered what new means she would find of freeing herself.

WADING IN SALT WATER Meshie pouring sand over Harry Raven’s knee. She does not like to go into deep water and she cannot swim, but she likes to wade.

She has become quite expert at untying knots, so much so that it is one of her most admired accomplishments. As a demonstration I fasten a piece of woven cotton rope about her neck; three feet away I tie the rope around the leg of a chair and pull the knot very tight, finally leading the end of the rope off several feet out of her reach. Meshie immediately attacks the knot with her teeth and hands. As soon as one part of it is loosened she looks at it, decides the course she must take, puts the loop over her head, and proceeds to crawl through it. If she is fastened with a “flat knot,” she simply repeats this operation to free herself completely. She has many times freed herself from knots of this kind in less than thirty seconds. The most surprising thing is her apparent delight in doing it. After untying the rope, she coils it about her neck and walks off.

Long ago, when she was quite small, she took a fancy to untying shoe laces and later she learned to take off the shoe. Now, after removing one shoe, she holds it in her groin while she removes the other, then puts them on her own feet and walks about, much to the delight of her audience.

BATHING Some chimpanzees may be afraid of water but Meshie has a cement pool, where on hot summer days she plays in the water most of the time.

Sometimes she attempts to tie knots and several times she has succeeded, although her efforts are as yet extremely crude from a human point of view. Nevertheless, they are just as effective as those of almost any small human child.

According to tests an adult female chimpanzee is approximately three and one-half times as strong as a college athlete. Meshie, about one-third grown, is about as strong as a grown man, though to see her slender arms and gentle ways one would be apt to underestimate her strength. My friends sometimes ask what Meshie would do if she got loose when I were not there. There were three such occasions last year. The first time she freed herself by breaking her chain, the second by packing her padlock full of sand and opening it, and the third time by a still more ingenious method. The first time she had been gone for about ten or fifteen minutes before her absence was discovered. She had climbed into some near-by wild cherry trees, where she spent her time in eating the fruit and young leaves. When Mrs. Raven discovered her, she had been free long enough to begin to feel a little uneasy, and when she was called, she came very willingly and allowed herself to be chained.

SOAP SUDS She likes to have a rag and some soap to wash with and to make lather and suds, just as human children do.

The second time she was discovered by some neighbors after she had wandered about fifty or seventy-five yards. She would not allow them to take hold of the chain that was fastened about her neck, and finally Mrs. Raven carried her home. Then the question arose as to how to fasten her. The hardware dealer could not send a padlock immediately, so Meshie was loose in the house in the meantime. Some luncheon dishes had to be washed and Meshie insisted on helping by sitting on the side of the sink and playing with the dish-cloth but being careful enough not to break anything. After this Mrs. Raven tried to sit quietly on a couch and read, but Meshie came over to her, sat beside her for a few moments, then began to bounce up and down as children like to do on a bed. She alternated this with standing on the head of the couch and jumping down into the middle of it. Finally a man arrived with the padlock, and Meshie, upon receiving some choice food, submitted to being chained.

The third occasion on which Meshie gained her freedom was a more complex and melodramatic affair. During the winter she was confined in a large cage in the basement. This cage was of wood and like a small room; it had been carefully constructed so that it offered very little opportunity for pulling apart from within. It was near a window and afforded her an opportunity to watch whatever was going on outside. I soon discovered that the cage had to be braced in every direction, for Meshie liked to climb up on the side and shake it with all her might, both for exercise and to hear it rattle. It was four feet square inside and had a hoop fastened to the ceiling by a swivel, so that she could swing or rock on it or spin around, just as she pleased. That she might be kept perfectly clean, the floor of the cage was not solid but made of slats like the sides, so that no dirt or moisture remained on the floor. Sitting on the slats was just as comfortable as sitting on the branches of trees in her native tropical forest. Beneath this floor of slats was a funnel draining into a pan that could easily be kept clean. At night a blanket was given to Meshie to sleep on and, if the weather was cold, she completely covered herself with it. In the morning she pushed it out between the slats of her cage. Hay or straw was never given to her, as is so often the custom in zoological gardens, for chimpanzees in the wild live in comparatively dust-free tropical forests and the dust of the hay is not good for them.

WALKING IN THE SNOW Chimpanzees have a coat of hair but no fur beneath it to protect them from severe cold, so, when Meshie goes out to play in very cold weather, she wears a sweater and galoshes.

Soon after being settled in her cage Meshie found that she could reach the electric light wires that were fastened to the basement ceiling. She pulled on these until it was no longer safe to leave them within her reach and we had an electrician remove them to the other side of the basement. One day for amusement she began to flip a burlap bag at a shelf out of arm’s reach above her head and beside the stairs. Perhaps by accident she first flipped the burlap over the shelf, but she repeated it until she had pulled down several tins and bottles, the contents of which spilled on the stairs and floor. I continued to strengthen the cage and to move things out of her reach until at last I felt sure that she could get into no more mischief.

One day I received an anxious telephone message from Mrs. Raven, telling me that Meshie had been out of her cage for some time and that I had better come home. I asked, “Why did you not telephone immediately?” She replied that before Meshie had made her exit from the cage she had been flipping the burlap about and had caught the telephone wire on it and pulled out about six feet of the wire. It had been necessary for Mrs. Raven to repair the wire before any telephoning could be done. She was alone in the house at the time and she locked the doors to prevent anyone from coming in or Meshie from going out. Meshie signified her pleasure at being free by embracing Mrs. Raven and saying Uh-“uh-uh!” repeatedly. Before coming upstairs she had had a look about the basement, playing for some time in the coal bin. After greeting Mrs. Raven, she went upstairs to the bathroom, and the coal dust in combination with a little water made black tracks all over the floor. From the bathroom she went into my little daughter’s bedroom, leaving black tracks everywhere as she jumped up and down on the bed.

SUCKING GRAPE-JUICE THROUGH A STRAW On this occasion, when Meshie had finished what was in her glass, she climbed up on her chair and finished the rest in the pitcher.

By that time Mrs. Raven had found her padlock and chain. When it was held up she came obediently to have it fastened around her neck, but she was unwilling to allow Mrs. Raven to chain her to a post in the basement, and immediately did everything in her power to get free again. The chain was loose about the post, so Meshie worked it up as she climbed until she was within reach of the electric light wires, on which she began to swing. Then, reaching with her hind feet, which are like hands, she grasped the gas-meter and pulled on it so hard that when I returned home I found the pipes bent and the meter standing out about a foot from the wall. A little more and a leak might have sprung—only a few feet from the furnace!

When I arrived on the scene and asked sternly, “What have you done?” she pouted, her lips stuck far out, and she put out her arms to embrace me; when I refused to take her and continued to scold, she screamed as if she were being terribly abused.

After the excitement had quieted down and order had been restored to the household, I asked how Meshie had broken out of her cage in the beginning. I found that she had done it by lying in her hoop, swinging and kicking the roof of the cage until she succeeded in raising one of the boards high enough for her to crawl through the opening made.

SLEDDING Meshie thoroughly enjoys sitting on the sled and being pulled; she also enjoys having her turn at pulling it.

When Meshie first arrived from Africa, our children carried her on the handlebars of their tricycles as they rode about the yard. She seemed to enjoy this and often ran up to a tricycle, mounted it, and turned the handles from side to side as she sat with her feet on the saddle. Her legs were so short that her feet could not reach the pedals. Later I bought Meshie a kiddie-car with pedals well adapted to her, but even then, when she first got on it she sat with her legs flexed and her feet drawn up. I took hold of her feet and pulled them down to the pedals, which she grasped just as she does the handles with her hands. It was not easy for her to understand how to push with her feet; she would forget about holding the pedals and would draw her feet up to the seat. To overcome this I finally fastened her feet to the pedals with strips of cheesecloth. If I did not watch closely, she would immediately reach down with her long arms and untie the cheesecloth, but if I spoke to her she would let it alone. It took only a short time for her to learn to push the pedals, but sometimes she made a mistake and pushed the wrong way, so that the machine ran backward. When she was seated in the proper position, I held a peach or grape or other food she considered choice before her, calling her to come to me and reprimanding her if she attempted to dismount. At first I gave her the reward when she succeeded in propelling the kiddie-car only a few feet, but I increased the distance as she became more proficient. It was clear after a very few lessons that she understood how to hold the pedals, and the cheesecloth fastenings were no longer necessary.

Thus far, I had always stood directly before her. When I stood somewhat to one side, she pedalled right past me, for her hands on the handle-bars remained passive. When she passed in this manner she grew very much excited, stuck out her lips, and talked at a great rate. Then I pushed her arm to turn the machine. A few more lessons and she had learned to steer. When she ran into the wall or a chair, she reached out with her foot and pushed herself away, turned the handles, and went forward again, repeating this until she cleared the obstacle. Soon she learned that when the machine was in a corner or between objects where she could not turn it, or when the wheels were caught on the edge of a rug, she must dismount and pull it free. It was very comical to see her quickly dismount, impatiently jerk her kiddie-car clear of the obstacle, then mount and hurry on.

ON PARADE Meshie leads the parade, but, if the children stop or do not follow closely, she looks back inquiringly. When they keep close, she rides steadily along.

After several lessons indoors I took her out on the sidewalk. There she at first ran into the fence that bounded the walk on one side, or rode off the curb on the other side. Some of my friends thought I was cruel to let her ride off the edge and take a tumble, then make her pick up the car and pull it back on the sidewalk only to repeat the performance within a few seconds, but it soon taught her to keep away from both the fence and the curb. Sometimes our small children and their friends had a parade, each one on some sort of tricycle or bicycle, with Meshie as the leader. She seemed to enjoy it as much as any of them.

Frequently during the past two years Meshie has been a visitor at the American Museum of Natural History. I drive in from the country with Meshie sitting beside me on the front seat of the automobile and at such times her behavior is just about perfect. She is keenly interested in the scenery and all that goes on along the way. When we stop at traffic lights, people in near-by cars often speak to her or laugh at her. Depending upon how she feels at the time, she ignores them or reaches out her hand in greeting. On several occasions when she has been spoken to by strangers, I have seen her reach for the handle and wind the window shut, or if it were shut, open it; in either case greatly amusing those watching her. Most of them seem to think it remarkable to see a chimpanzee entirely free, riding in a car like a human being.

PLAYING THE HOSE When the hose is put on the ground within her reach she grasps it with one of her hind feet, then climbs up to her house, where she sits and sprays the water all about, sometimes even into the second-story windows. She drinks from the hose, claps one hand over the nozzle to make the water spray out sidewise, and alternately screws the nozzle right and left to turn the water on and off.

When Meshie comes to the Museum I always bring her kiddie-car and she mounts it as soon as she leaves the automobile. Sometimes she rides through the long passageways in the basement. There the floor is of cement, but in some places where pipes cross beneath the passage they are covered by an iron plate. Although the iron is on the same level as the rest of the floor, Meshie stops, dismounts, and lifts her car over it. She seems to feel that this is necessary; why, I do not know. It may have been because sometimes the iron plates were hot. Another peculiarity like this was noticed when she was riding through one of the halls in the Museum where the floor was tiled in red with a border of black. When Meshie reached the black border at the end of the hall, she dismounted and lifted her car over, just as she did when she came to the iron plates in the basement. When entering or leaving the elevator, she usually dismounts and carries her car in the same manner and often stops to peep down the crack between the elevator and the floor.

A short time ago I took Meshie into a new part of the Museum not yet open to the public. I pushed the button to call the elevator, then walked off about twenty feet to look into one of the halls in course of preparation. Meshie had seen me press the button, so she rode her kiddie-car over to it, stood up on the seat, and with her finger alternately and almost continuously pushed the up and the down buttons. As the elevator approached, I heard an outburst from the elevator man: “All right, all right! I’m coming; you don’t have to keep on ringing!” Then he opened the door, saw Meshie still standing by the push-buttons, blushed and said sheepishly: “I thought it was the Irishman that is working on the second floor.”

Meshie frequently has luncheon with me in the Museum restaurant. She knows her way as soon as she leaves the elevator, driving her kiddie-car more rapidly as she approaches the room and begins to anticipate her luncheon. As she enters the restaurant she turns to me and says, “Mm-mm-mm!” If she is very hungry and becomes excited by the people, the clatter of dishes, and the smell of food, she gives shouts or screams of joy such as only a chimpanzee can give and loud enough to be heard in the open for half a mile or more. These screams always delight her human friends and seldom fail to startle those who hear them for the first time.

AN ICE CREAM PARTY Meshie considers ice cream a great treat and acknowledges it vociferously before being served and while she eats.

After that, she proceeds to the curators’ table, unless I designate some other, climbs up into the high-chair ready for her, and places the folding tray in position. It hangs at the back of the chair and Meshie raises it up over her head and brings it down before her. Then she wants her dinner at once. She looks around for the waitress, puts her hand out toward her, and when she sees her dinner coming, rocks her body gently from side to side, saying “Uh-uh-uh!” When the food is before her, she picks up a spoon or a fork and begins to eat, not attempting to use her fingers as she used to do. If she happens to pick up the spoon with her left hand she soon transfers it to her right, not directly but by leaving it in her mouth, letting go with the left hand and then taking hold of it with her right hand.

Meshie’s regular diet consists mostly of plain wholesome food, such as bread and butter, milk, potatoes, spinach, green beans, lettuce, tomatoes and various fruits, with occasionally a little meat; in other words, Meshie eats whatever we have. Sweet things she considers a treat, consequently at the Museum I give her more sweets than usual. She may have two desserts—caramel custard and ice cream, the latter being her favorite dish. When she has finished eating, she unfolds her napkin, wipes her face with it, and if not told to put it down, she will cover her head with it again and again as if she were playing blind-man’s bluff.

THE MATERNAL INSTINCT Meshie, half-grown female chimpanzee, was delighted upon being allowed to hold Mary Raven, aged two and one-half months. She was extremely gentle and solicitous of the baby’s comfort, seeming to appreciate the trust bestowed upon her.

Not long ago Meshie had the honor of being a guest of President F. Trubee Davison of the American Museum of Natural History at a formal banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria. What could be stranger, more unlike her former home in the African forest, than the ride across Manhattan in a taxicab, the brightly lighted hotel with gaily-dressed people everywhere, the brass band and negro minstrels! But she rode her kiddie-car through the foyer, into the banquet hall crowded with strangers, and took her place at the table with the rest of the guests. She politely ate some of each course as the dinner was served, sat quietly while the speeches were made, blinked while the Press photographers took more than a dozen flash-light photographs of her, and did not get home to bed until long after midnight. Not many chimpanzees have had such experiences. Not many children would have behaved as well.

POSTSCRIPT: Meshie became hard to control after she became sexually mature, and Harry Raven reluctantly sold her to a Chicago zoo. He visited her about a year later, and described their last encounter to Museum anthropologist Harry L. Shapiro. The story is recounted by Douglas J. Preston in Dinosaurs in the Attic: An Excursion into the American Museum of Natural History (St. Martin’s press, 1994): “[Raven] told the keeper to unlock the cage and let him inside. The man refused, saying that it was far too dangerous, since Meshie had attacked several people and tried to bite others. Raven absolutely insisted, and the keeper finally gave in, washing his hands of all responsibility. ‘When Raven did go in the cage,’ Shapiro says, ‘Meshie threw herself into his arms and clung to him tightly. She began crying. The tears were streaming down her face.’ Meshie died in childbirth a year later, and the zoo shipped her body back to the Museum at Raven’s request, where he had it mounted and put on display in the Hall of Primates.”

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