Harvard Zoologist Leads Nine Months Trek to Study Agile Gibbons in Siam

The dark, dank jungles of Borneo will be wilder than ever during the next nine months, and usually placid primates will blink in the unaccustomed glare of publicity, for the first qualified expedition for studying them will leave within a month under the auspices of Harvard, Bart College, and Johns Hopkins University.

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Monkeys who catch pigeons n midair en route from one tree to the next, monkeys who juggle china cups without breaking them, monkeys who walk and almost even talk are to be the goal of the expedition, the first half of which will leave New York for Singapore on the S.S "Kota Tjandi" on December 29.

Led by Harold J. Coolidge, Jr. '27, Assistant Curater of Mammals of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, the project marks the first time that a group of qualified primate specialists has ever visited Asia for intensive cooperative research on gibbons, orangutans, and other important sub-human primates.

Special attention will be paid to the behavior and physical structure of gibbons, which live in great clans in the jungles of northern Siam. There is strong evidence that man and other higher primates have evolved from a gibbonoid stock, and therefore the gibbon becomes a key animal in the interpretation of man's social and physical evolution.

Describing the gibbon, Mr. Coolidge said: "Many will remember 'Bimbo' the gibbon that made a name for himself in the film 'Chang'. Gibbons stand about three feet high and weigh about twelve pounds. The gibbon is covered with a furry coat that may vary in color from black, with white markings, to light tan or silver. . . . They have a flattened face with a human looking nose. The scientific name for the gibbon is 'Bylobates', which means treewalker. It is particularly appropriate as they swing through the trees by means of their long arms at a remarkable speed. They are the most beautiful natural acrobats and think nothing of swinging across a forty feet clearing and catching a pigeon in mid-air on the way over. They have the most perfect sense of timing. One gibbon pet in Indo-China used to juggle precious china cups or plates in the air without ever breaking one.

Their span of life is unknown, but a single white-handed gibbon has already lived over thirty years in the Philadelphia zoo. Only two gibbons have bred in zoos of Europe or America".