Chimps Instead of Spock

Most Western women would think twice about taking a three-month-old baby into the African bush for an extended stay. But that is precisely what British Zoologist Jane van Lawick-Goodall did in 1967 when she set out on a three-year expedition to Tanzania with her husband and her infant son Hugo (nicknamed "Grub"). Back in London with her family, she reports that she looked to the behavior of chimpanzees for guidance in raising Grub.

Long years of observation in Africa (summarized in her 1967 book My Friends: The Wild Chimpanzees) have convinced Zoologist Goodall that the chimps' treatment of their young produces well-balanced adults. In raising infants, for example, chimps practice discipline by distraction, a technique that worked very well with Grub; instead of punishing him when he was troublesome, his mother amused him by giving him her undivided attention. While human beings and hyenas often let their unhappy offspring scream interminably, Jane notes, "chimps keep their babies happy by cuddling them whenever they want it. I preferred the chimp way, so I cuddled Grub lots." In aping the apes, however, she was flexible. Young chimps, when they are naughty, usually get a quick bite on the hand, and then a consoling hug. Jane has never bitten Grub, but she does give him "a reassuring hug after a quick reprimand."

African Nannies. Jane--and Grub --also profited from the chimps' mistakes. "When young chimps don't feel secure, they won't move a step from their mother," Jane says. "There was one chimp who kept walking off and leaving her baby alone. The infant chimp became so insecure that when it was playing with its mother at its side, it would never let go her hand." Thus forewarned, Jane kept Grub with her as much as she could, and when she had to, left him with two loving male African nannies. As a result, she believes, Grub has become an independent child who rarely clings to her.

Compared to British children, Grub, now three, nonetheless has a few deficiencies. He cannot moo like a cow, for example, or quack like a duck. But he can imitate the soft whooping of the hyena, and when he wants to, he can sound like a lion, a wild dog, a chimp or a jackal.

Grub felt perfectly secure as long as he was living in the jungle, but he wonders if wild beasts may not be lurking in his grandmother's English garden. "Is it safe for me here?" he asks. Prudently, he retrieves his ball from under a shrub only after thumping the bush with a big stick to scare off snakes.

Left for Scavengers. More than anything else, Grub is appalled at civilized burial customs. When he and his three-year-old friend Rebecca found a dead bird, she wanted to bury it. Says Jane: "He was horrified. He thought the idea of hiding something that had been alive under the earth was quite obscene." Grub, a proper jungle child, knew that dead creatures should be left for scavengers.

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