'Does anyone know of any photographs available of Frank Bostock's gorilla? I have located two of his orangutangs, of which he apparently at one time exhibited both species as well as a gorilla. Interesting to note the gorilla keeper was offered a bonus if he could keep the gorilla alive for more then "a week, a fortnight, or a month." The keeper is noted as Cuban. Gargantua's keeper was also Cuban. Why did it appear Cuban's were "gorilla experts" years ago?
Posts
5 comments:
Did you ever hear about how in the Soviet Union they were planning to artificially inseminate a human female from an orang-utan? Sincerely Paul
Paul,
I have read about the experiments in the Soviet Union to produce a "super soldier" with a human X simian cross. Very scary to think that there was actually an attempt at such a creature. Similar, in a sense to the insane crossing of felines.
Wade Burck
Wade: I don't think there was ever an attempt to create a super soldier by cross breeding apes and humans, although I heard that Stalin inquired about this. The orang-utan died before it could be attempted, but the Soviets did artificially inseminate two chimpanzees with human sperm, in co-operation with the French and the Pasteur Institute in one of their West African colonies, but no offspring resulted, and that was the end of it. I think that maybe the chimps spontaneously aborted deformed embryos which were microscopic. When an attempt was made to cross a tiger with a leopard the tigress spontaneously aborted the embryos. This has also happened when different species of zebra have been cross bred. I remember the Frankfurt Zoo director (I forget how to spell his name, the one who had the plane painted with zebra stripes. I'm sure you know who I mean. The guy Gerald Iles told me married his own daughter in law.) He wrote in one of his books, probably Serengeti Must Not Die, about rumors concerning chimpanzee-human hybrids coming out of the Soviet Union. I have read that there are gorillas in the wild which do not fit into any recognized subspecies and there has been speculation about gorilla-chimpanzee hybrids. Sincerely Paul
Paul,
You are referring to Bernhard Klemens Maria Grzimek,a great zoo director and conversationalist.
Wade Burck
Wade: Yes that's him. I think the book was Serengeti Shall Not Die. Gerald Iles told me that after WWII he was at a convention for zoo directors and a Dutch zoo director did not want to sit next to Grzimek because he was German. Also as I recall Stalin wanted to create hybrid ape-human soldiers because he thought they wouldn't complain about the food. Take care. Sincerely Paul
Post a Comment