3-021-034 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A new arrival at the Zoological Society's Gardens, Regent's Park, 1868. A 'Chinese ape' at London Zoo. 'It is an adult male, five or six years old, and a native of the province of Szechuan, in China. At the meeting of the society..., a description of the animal was given by Dr. Gray, who proposes to confer the name of Macacus lasiotus on this rare species of ape. It is the only specimen at present in Europe...When this stranger was placed in the monkey-house,...his reception by the other inmates of the cage was a very amusing scene...Half a dozen of them rushed forward, leaping and skipping, with eager curiosity, to see what sort of creature had come to dwell amongst them...The big black baboon...is the Chacmal, from South Africa; he allows...the little Rhesus, his favourite playmate, to cling round his neck, and carries him, with much good nature, all about the cage. In the foreground is another South African, the Vervet monkey; while the bonnet monkey swings in a rope overhead. The Chinese ape is now tied up at one end of the cage, that he may not be constantly fighting with the others...He seems rather wild, flying into a rage at every visitor who ventures too near the cage'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.