Men who Named the African Apes

During the colonial times, many researchers and explorers set out to discover the African continent and its flora and fauna. They observed unknown animals and brought home skulls and bones which were subsequently described and analyzed by other scientists. Some subspecies of the African apes were named after the first caucasians who had come in contact with these animals.

Central chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes troglodytes Blumenbach, 1779)
Western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus Schwarz, 1934)
Eastern chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii Giglioli, 1872)
Bonobo (Pan paniscus Schwarz, 1929)
Western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla Savage and Wyman, 1847)
Mountain gorilla (Gorilla gorilla beringei Matschie, 1903)
Eastern lowland or Grauer's gorilla (Gorilla gorilla graueri Matschie, 1914)

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840)

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach studied in Jena and Göttingen, and in 1776 he became professor of medicine in Göttingen. His special interests were comparative anatomy, natural history and anthropology, of which he is regarded as the founder. Moreover, he had a solid education in philosophy which also influenced his scientific endeavors: he not only described biological phenomena but also tried to explain them. Due to lack of scientific evidence, he, much like Linné, categorized animals and humans on the basis of external resemblances. In 1779 he published the Handbuch der Naturgeschichte (Handbook of Natural History), a standard work published in several editions. In this book he also described the chimpanzee - in the first edition in Latin, as was usual at that time:
Troglodytes, der Chimpanse. S. macrocephala, torosa dorso et humeris pilosis, reliquo corpore glabro. (Troglodytes, the chimpanzee. Monkey with large head, muscular back and hairy upper arms, rest of body bald.)
Blumenbach added some remarks about this ape in the sixth edition of his handbook. In translation the chapter about the species reads there:
Troglodytes, the African man of the forest, Chimpanzee, Pongo, Jocko, Barris. Black monkey, large head, muscular, large ears. In the center of Angola, Congo and up-country; like the actual orang-utan as large as an eight-year old boy.
Why Blumenbach called the ape Troglodytes, cave-dweller, is not clear. The present name of the chimpanzee genus, Pan, is that of the Greek god of herdsmen and hunters.

Ernst Schwarz (1889-1962)

This scientist was born in Frankfurt and studied zoology in Munich. He then worked for the Museum of Natural History in Frankfurt and the Zoological Museum in Berlin. 1929 he became professor of Zoology in Greifswald. He emigrated to London in 1933, where he got a position at the British Museum of Natural History. Four years later, he moved to the USA and worked as a researcher at several institutions.
Schwarz described many great ape species and subspecies. However, most of these names are no longer in use. For example, he classified the bonobo as a subspecies (Pan satyrus paniscus) of the chimpanzee. This ape was classified as a distinct species in 1933 by Harold Jefferson Coolidge. Schwarz described the bonobo as follows:
This is a real dwarf. It has all the characteristics of Pan s. satyrus found on the right banks of the lower Congo, but retained all characteristics of youth: small body size, protruding forehead, small brow ridges, rounded occiput without any crests and ridges.
The 1934 description of the western chimpanzee also was published by Schwarz, who at the time still called it Pan satyrus verus (a satyr is a sylvan sprite from the Greek mythology; 'verus' means 'true').

Enrico Hillyer Giglioli (1845-1909)

One subspecies of chimpanzee was described by this Italian zoologist. Giglioli was born in London and studied there. He graduated with a degree in science at the University of Pisa in 1864 and began teaching zoology in Florence in 1869. Marine vertebrates, as well as invertebrates, were his particular interest. In addition, he dealt with ethnology.
Giglioli and Georg Schweinfurth corresponded regularly, and the Italian zoologist published a detailed investigation of the chimpanzee skulls which Schweinfurth had collected in the region of today's southern Sudan. To honor its discoverer, Giglioli named the species Troglodytes Schweinfurthii.

Georg Schweinfurth (1836-1925)

During his school years in Riga, Georg Schweinfurth developed a special interest for Africa and for botany. He decided that he wanted to explore Africa and therefore prepared himself for this task with exhausting walks. Afterwards he studied science in Heidelberg, Munich and Berlin, and after finishing his doctoral thesis on the flora of the Nile valley, he visited Africa for the first time in 1863. From 1868 to 1871, he ventured upon his big trip to the western tributaries of the Nile. Upon returning to Europe, he brought back an extensive herbar, many drawings and 15 chimpanzee skulls. How he was able to obtain these skulls, he explained as follows:
When I consider the massive amount of chimpanzee skulls and skull fragments that have been accumulated in the hamlets at the Diamvonu, then I feel it is justified to assume that this must be one of the major distribution areas of these strange creatures. Night had already befallen us, ... when a group of men from the neighbouring village joined us. In exchange for copper rings they were prepared to offer me some well-preserved chimpanzee skulls.
In 1874 Schweinfurth published his scientific and ethnic observations under the title In the Heart of Africa. Two years later, he settled down as a private scholar in Kairo and undertook many more travels from his new domicile.

Thomas Staughton Savage (1804-1880), Jeffries Wyman (1814-1874)

The American Thomas S. Savage was a protestant clergyman, missionary, physician and naturalist. In 1833 he received the degree of M. D. at Yale Medical School and then studied at a theological seminary. He was sent as a missionary to Liberia in 1836. While working in Africa, he showed great interest for the fauna of this continent.
When he finally went on his way back to America in 1847, he was detained in Gaboon. There he noticed the skull of a large great ape which belonged to the clergiman J. L. Wilson. Savage was able to acquire several more skulls and some bones from this, until then, unknown species. They were referred to as 'Engé-ena' by the local people, and he described them together with Jeffries Wyman with the scientific name Troglodytes gorilla. The species name 'gorilla' they adopted from the report of the Carthaginian seafarer Hanno (470 b. Chr.). He had called by this name hairy 'savage people' he had found on the western coast of Africa.
Savage wrote about these animals in his publication:
They are exceedingly ferocious, and always offensive in their habits, never running from man as does the Chimpanzée... The killing of an Engé-ena is considered an act of great skill and courage, and brings to the victor signal honor... They are generally eaten, and their flesh, with that of the Chimpanzée, and monkeys at large, occupies a prominent place in their 'bill of fare'...
The skull of the Engé-ena recedes much farther from the human type than that of the Enché-eco, in its greater development of the cranial crests and ridges, in the greater elongation of the upper jaw downwards and forwards, in the length of the bony palate, no less than in the much more brutal and ferocious expression of the face; in this last respect it even surpassses the Orangs of Borneo and Sumatra.
In addition, Savage studied African reptiles and insects. After returning to the USA, he continued to serve his church.
Jeffries Wyman, likewise an American, practiced medicine for three years in Boston after completing his medical studies at Harvard. He subsequently worked as a scientist at several institutions. In 1847 he became professor of anatomy and physiology at Harvard. In the following years, he founded a museum of anatomy. He became professor of American archeology and ethnology in 1866, and founded a museum of ethnology. His most famous anatomical studies include those of the gorilla, in particular the first decription of this species.

Paul Matschie (1861-1926)

Matschie never finished his studies in mathematics and science, but instead worked for the Zoological Museum in Berlin from 1883 to 1885 and again from 1887 until his death. He became professor in 1902. Initially Matschie was interested in ornithology, but later he specialized in large African mammals as well. He described several new orders, genuses and species - including two of the current gorilla subspecies, which he had originally classified as new species. In addition, Matschie published descriptions of several new gorilla subspecies which are no longer accepted.

Robert von Beringe

Robert von Beringe (usually referred to as "Oskar"), a captain of the German colonial force, traveled through eastern Africa during the German colonial times (1890-1916) and became interested in the flora and fauna of the area. During his second trip in 1902, he traveled from Bujumbura north through Burundi and Rwanda, visiting German posts and African chiefs with the intent to strengthen relations with local rulers, in addition to promoting the reputation and power of the German government. On 17 October, von Beringe shot two gorillas in the Virunga Volcanoes on a saddle between Mgahinga and Sabinyo. He reported about this experience in the Deutsches Kolonialblatt:
At an altitude of about 3,100 m we set up our camp... From here we suddenly noticed a troup of large black monkeys which were attempting to climb to the highest point of the volcano. We were able to shoot two of these monkeys, which hurled down into the gorge of the crater with an incredible rumble. After five hours of strenuous work, we were able to retrieve one of these animals. Unfortunately, I was unable to classify the monkey.
Matschie later found out that it was a gorilla after an examination of the skull and some skeletal parts which had been sent to Berlin.
In 1906, von Beringe asked for his transfer, and from then on served as a captain in a regiment in Pomerania. More about Robert von Beringe

Rudolf Grauer (1870-1927)

The Austrian Rudolf Grauer was born to Jewish parents in Troppau. He studied law in Vienna and agriculture in Halle/Saale. Between 1904 and 1906 he made two safaris in Uganda and was the first to climb the Ruwenzori to the watershed at an altitude of 4,800 m and collect various zoological specimens. During subsequent trips to eastern Africa (1907-1911), he concentrated all his efforts on collecting animal specimens. From his last trip for the Natural History Museum in Vienna, he also brought with him the hide and skull of a gorilla which he had shot close to Lake Tanganjika. This new gorilla was therefore described by Matschie and named after Grauer its collector.
For family reasons, Grauer had to forsake additional expeditions that he had planned. Instead, he settled down in Vienna, took over the family's factory and married. After seven years of suffering from actinomycosis which he had contracted in Africa, he succumbed to the disease in 1927.

Species or Subspecies?

The initial classifications of the ape species and subspecies were based mainly on skull characteristics. Even today, skull measurements play an important role in systematic zoology. But recently, another way of measuring systematic relationships has become more and more important: genetics. In several studies parts of the mitochondrial DNA of various African great ape populations (usually extracted from hair follicles) were compared. Two analyses published in 1994 challenge the present classification. According to DNA sequences, the western and eastern gorilla populations differ more than the two chimpanzee species, so that they could in effect be classified as two separate species. Moreover, the western chimpanzee differs so much from the rest of the chimpanzees, that they could potentially be classified as a separate species. However, a re-classification of the African great apes would require the consideration of additional criteria.

Angela Meder

Dr. Angela Meder observed the behaviour and development of captive lowland gorillas for 10 years. A major aim of her various studies was the improvement of the management, rearing and housing of gorillas in zoos. Today she works as a book editor. Since 1992 she has been part of the Board of Directors of Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe.

Gorillas in general - overview

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