Raising A Human And A Chimp Isn’t A Good Idea
Raising kids is tough. Making sure you have an ideal home environment, support, and proper care are only a few of the important details needed when raising a child. But in the early 1930s, a psychologist had a different plan than the typical way to raise a child. When Winthrop Kellogg and his wife birthed Donald, they decided to take a different approach to parent. They wanted to take feral raising to a new level and brought in a second child. This child was not human, it was a chimp named Gua. They wanted to see if they could raise both species together, and test if your environment truly shapes how you develop. Together, they raised Donald and Gua side by side. Gua surpassed Donald in terms of scribbling, strength, climbing, reflexes, and language comprehension. But she could not speak English. Kellogg abruptly ended the experiment when Donald began imitating the sounds of his chimp sister from another species, and “in short, the language retardation in Donald may have brought an end to the study” (Smithsonian Mag).