If this sounds rather melodramatic, consider the figures involved. At the end of the seventeenth century the world population of naked apes was only 500 million. It has now risen to 3,000 million.1 Every twenty-four hours it increases by another 150,000. (The inter-planetary emigration authorities would find this figure a daunting challenge.) In 260 years’ time, if the rate of increase stays steady – which is unlikely – there will be a seething mass of 400,000 million naked apes crowding the face of the earth. This gives a figure of 11,000 individuals to every square mile of the entire land surface. To put it another way, the densities we now experience in our major cities would exist in every corner of the globe. The consequence of this for all forms of wild life is obvious. The effect it would have on our own species is equally depressing.
We need not dwell on this nightmare: the possibility of its becoming a reality is remote. As I have stressed throughout this book, we are, despite all our great technological advances, still very much a simple biological phenomenon. Despite our grandiose ideas and our lofty self-conceits, we are still humble animals, subject to all the basic laws of animal behaviour. Long before our populations reach the levels envisaged above we shall have broken so many of the rules that govern our biological nature that we shall have collapsed as a dominant species. We tend to suffer from a strange complacency that this can never happen, that there is something special about us, that we are somehow above biological control. But we are not. Many exciting species have become extinct in the past and we are no exception. Sooner or later we shall go, and make way for something else. If it is to be later rather than sooner, then we must take a long, hard look at ourselves as biological specimens and gain some understanding of our limitations. This is why I have written this book, and why I have deliberately insulted us by referring to us as naked apes, rather than by the more usual name we use for ourselves. It helps to keep a sense of proportion and to force us to consider what is going on just below the surface of our lives. In my enthusiasm I may, perhaps, have overstated my case. There are many praises I could have sung, many magnificent achievements I could have described. By omitting them I have inevitably given a one-sided picture. We are an extraordinary species and I do not wish to deny it, or to belittle us. But these things have been said so often. When the coin is tossed it always seems to come up heads, and I have felt that it was high time we turned it over and looked at the other side. Unfortunately, because we are so powerful and so successful when compared with other animals, we find the contemplation of our humble origins somehow offensive, so that I do not expect to be thanked for what I have done. Our climb to the top has been a get-rich-quick story, and, like all nouveaux riches, we are very sensitive about our background. We are also in constant danger of betraying it.
Optimism is expressed by some who feel that since we have evolved a high level of intelligence and a strong inventive urge, we shall be able to twist any situation to our advantage; that we are so flexible that we can re-mould our way of life to fit any of the new demands made by our rapidly rising species-status; that when the time comes, we shall manage to cope with the over-crowding, the stress, the loss of our privacy and independence of action; that we shall re-model our behaviour patterns and live like giant ants; that we shall control our aggressive and territorial feelings, our sexual impulses and our parental tendencies; that if we have to become battery chicken-apes, we can do it; that our intelligence can dominate all our basic biological urges. I submit that this is rubbish. Our raw animal nature will never permit it. Of course, we are flexible. Of course, we are behavioural opportunists, but there are severe limits to the form our opportunism can take. By stressing our biological features in this book, I have tried to show the nature of these restrictions. By recognizing them clearly and submitting to them, we shall stand a much better chance of survival. This does not imply a naive ‘return to nature’. It simply means that we should tailor our intelligent opportunist advances to our basic behavioural requirements. We must somehow improve in quality rather than in sheer quantity. If we do this, we can continue to progress technologically in a dramatic and exciting way without denying our evolutionary inheritance. If we do not, then our suppressed biological urges will build up and up until the dam bursts and the whole of our elaborate existence is swept away in the flood.
* * *
1 In the quarter of a century since this book was written, the world population has nearly doubled and is now well over 5,000 million.
CHAPTER REFERENCES
It is impossible to list all the many works that have been of assistance in writing The Naked Ape, but some of the more important ones are arranged below on a chapter-by-chapter and topic-by-topic basis. Detailed references for these publications are given in the bibliography.
1 ORIGINS
Classification of primates: Morris, 1965. Napier and Napier, 1967.
Evolution of primates: Dart and Craig, 1959. Eimerl and DeVore, 1965. Hooton, 1947. Le Gros Clark, 1959. Morris and Morris, 1966. Napier and Napier, 1967. Oakley, 1961. Read, 1925. Washburn, 1962 and 1964. Tax, 1960.
Carnivore behaviour: Guggisberg, 1961. Kleiman, 1966. Kruuk, 1966. Leyhausen, 1956. Lorenz, 1954. Moulton, Ashton and Eayrs, 1960. Neuhaus, 1953. Young and Goldman, 1944.
Primate behaviour: Morris, 1967. Morris and Morris, 1966. Schaller, 1963. Southwick, 1963. Yerkes and Yerkes, 1929. Zuckerman, 1932.
2 SEX
Animal courtship: Morris, 1956.
Sexual responses: Masters and Johnson, 1966.
Sexual pattern frequencies: Kinsey et al., 1948 and 1953.
Self-mimicry: Wickler, 1963 and 1967.
Mating postures: Ford and Beach, 1952.
Odour preferences: Monicreff, 1965.
Chastity devices: Gould and Pyle, 1896.
Homosexuality: Morris, 1955.
3 REARING
Suckling: Gunther, 1955. Lipsitt, 1966.
Heart-beat response: Salk, 1966.
Growth rates: Harrison, Weiner, Tanner and Barnicott, 1964.
Sleep: Kleitman, 1963.
Stages of development: Shirley, 1933.
Development of vocabulary: Smith, 1926.
Chimpanzee vocal imitations: Hayes, 1952.
Crying, smiling and laughing: Ambrose, 1960.
Facial expressions in primates: van Hooff, 1962.
Group density in children: Hutt and Vaizey, 1966.
4 EXPLORATION
Neophilia and neophobia: Morris, 1964.
Ape picture-making: Morris, 1962.
Infant picture-making: Kellogg, 1955.
Chimpanzee exploratory behaviour: Morris and Morris, 1966.
Isolation during infancy: Harlow, 1958.
Stereotyped behaviour: Morris, 1964 and 1966.
5 AGGRESSION
Primate aggression: Morris and Morris, 1966.
Autonomic changes: Cannon, 1929.
Origin of signals: Morris, 1956 and 1957.
Displacement activities: Tinbergen, 1951.
Facial expressions: van Hooff, 1962.
Eye-spot signals: Coss, 1965.
Reddening of buttocks: Comfort, 1966.
Redirection of aggression: Bastock, Morris and Moynihan, 1953.
Over-crowding in animals: Calhoun, 1962.
6 FEEDING
Male association patterns: Tiger, 1967.
Organs of taste and smell: Wyburn, Pickford and Hirst, 1964.
Cereal diets: Harrison, Weiner, Tanner and Barnicott, 1964.
7 COMFORT
Social grooming: van Hooff, 1962. Sparks, 1963. (I am particularly indebted to Jan van Hooff for inventing the term ‘Grooming talk’.)
Skin glands: Montagna, 1956.
Temperature responses: Harrison, Weiner, Tanner and Barnicott, 1964.
‘Medical’ aid in chimpanzees: Miles, 1963.
8 ANIMALS
Domestication: Zeuner, 1963.
Animal likes: Morris and Morris, 1966.
Animal dislikes: Morris and Morris, 1965.
Population explosion: Fremlin, 1965.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is intended for a general audience and authorities have therefore not been quoted in the text. To do so would have broken the flow of words and is a practice suitable only for a more technical work. But many brilliantly original papers and books have been referred to during the assembly of this volume and it would be wrong to present it without acknowledging their valuable assistance. At the end of the book I have included a chapter-by-chapter appendix relating the topics discussed to the major authorities concerned. This appendix is then followed by a selected bibliography giving the detailed references.
I would also like to express my debt and my gratitude to the many colleagues and friends who have helped me, directly and indirectly, in discussions, correspondence and many other ways. They include, in particular, the following: Dr Anthony Ambrose, Mr David Attenborough, Dr David Blest, Dr N. G. Blurton-Jones, Dr John Bowlby, Dr Hilda Bruce, Dr Richard Coss, Dr Richard Davenport, Dr Alisdair Fraser, Professor J. H. Fremlin, Professor Robin Fox, Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, Dr Fae Hall, Professor Sir Alister Hardy, Professor Harry Harlow, Mrs Mary Haynes, Dr Jan van Hooff, Sir Julian Huxley, Miss Devra Kleiman, Dr Paul Leyhausen, Dr Lewis Lipsitt, Mrs Caroline Loizos, Professor Konrad Lorenz, Dr Malcolm Lyall-Watson, Dr Gilbert Manley, Dr Isaac Marks, Mr Tom Maschler, Dr L. Harrison Matthews, Mrs Ramona Morris, Dr John Napier, Mrs Caroline Nicolson, Dr Kenneth Oakley, Dr Fances Reynolds, Dr Vernon Reynolds, The Hon. Miriam Rothschild, Mrs Claire Russell, Dr W. M. S. Russell, Dr George Schaller, Dr John Sparks, Dr Lionel Tiger, Professor Niko Tinbergen, Mr Ronald Webster, Dr Wolfgang Wickler, and Professor John Yudkin.
I hasten to add that the inclusion of a name in this list does not imply that the person concerned necessarily agrees with my views as expressed here in this book.
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