The question of the psychological damage arising from being put under constant surveillance (see my posts The Causes of Evil? and Krakatoa part1: ex- 52 Caldera Crescent, Tunbridge Wells), brings me to Jane Goodall’s chimpanzees at the Gombe Stream Reserve. The change in the health of the chimpanzees during the first 10 years of Goodall’s study provides a beautiful, and shocking, illustration of the severe psychological trauma induced by being put under surveillance.
To summarise: when Goodall took up her post at Gombe Stream (at that time she was the only scientist on site and worked alone), there were several groups of chimps as well as at least one group of baboons living on the reserve. There was normal, healthy interaction between the groups of chimps as well as between the chimps and baboons i.e. playful as well as cooperative. This state of affairs was short lived.
To observe and record the minutiae of the animals’ daily activities, Goodall decided she had to, as it were, get “up close and personal”. She stalked the chimps. Not surprisingly, the animals at first rejected her approaches e.g. with aggression or simply by fleeing from her. But Goodall wouldn’t take “No” for an answer. She was relentless. Eventually she succeeded in “habituating” the chimps to her presence i.e. the chimps admitted defeat and submitted to her will.
This went on for a few years. Goodall stalked the groups of chimps alone. However, as her reputation grew, the reserve attracted PhD students and so where formerly Goodall had divided her time between about 5 groups of chimps, now each group had its own scientist stalking it all the daylight hours.
That the animals’ health had significantly deteriorated, both mentally and physically, at the end of 10 years is hardly surprising. They became unusually accident prone; they succumbed easily to infection; the birth rate dropped (either through infertility or high rates of miscarriage); there was a killing spree - brothers killed brothers; mothers killed infants; sons killed fathers; daughters killed mothers. The culmination of all this deviant behaviour was that the original 5 groups of healthy chimps were reduced to two and then one single “super-group”, the final phase of the killing spree being when the stronger of the two surviving groups systematically hunted down and annihilated the other.
Think about it, people, how would YOU feel if you were stalked all your waking hours by somebody who just silently stared at you from a distance of a few feet, only taking their eyes off you for as long as it took to record a note on their record sheet?..And how do you think you would feel after the first month, then a year later? Do you think you’d still be sane after 10 years of this sort of relentless stalking?
What’s wrong with you people?!! These are the scientists who preach conservation, environmentalism, respect for animals, captive breeding programmes to protect endangered species, and who induce you to put your hands deep into your pockets, not to mention encouraging all sorts of other personal sacrifices, to support their work………these same scientists whose methods induce genocidal wars in the animal population. Wake up!
PS: Just thought it might be worth pointing out that scientists are scientists are scientists – ok, it’s with the animals that you can REALLY see how badly they are going wrong, but like I say, scientists are all of a kind – I mean, it could be the son of Jane Goodall who’s running your local nuclear power station!
To follow:
Krakatoa part 3: erupting nuclear power stations