Rosalía Abreu (15 January 1862 – 3 November 1930) was a Cuban philanthropist and animal-keeper who was the first person to successfully breed

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...

s in captivity. In 1926, she initially supported research proposed by Ilya Ivanov to breed a

humanzee The humanzee (sometimes chuman, manpanzee or chumanzee) is a hypothetical hybrid of chimpanzee and human, thus a form of human–animal hybrid. Serious attempts to create such a hybrid were made by Soviet biologist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov in the 192 ...

, although she later retracted the decision to involve her primates in the experiment. American

eugenicist Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetics, genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human Phenotype, phenotypes by ...

Robert Yerkes Robert Mearns Yerkes (; May 26, 1876 – February 3, 1956) was an American psychologist, ethologist, eugenicist and primatologist best known for his work in intelligence testing and in the field of comparative psychology. Yerkes was a pionee ...

worked with Abreu and based some of his research on developments she had made in primate care and purchased many of her primates.

Early life

Abreu was born on 15 January 1862 to a wealthy family in

Villa Clara Province Villa Clara is one of the provinces of Cuba. It is located in the central region of the island bordering on the Atlantic Ocean to the north, Matanzas Province to the west, Sancti Spiritus Province to the east, and Cienfuegos Province to the Sou ...

, Cuba. Her father was a plantation owner named Pedro Nolasco González Abreu y Jimenes. She had two sisters:

Marta Abreu Doña Marta de los Ángeles González Abreu y Arencibia (13 November 1845 – 2 January 1909) was a Cuban philanthropist and one of the most influential figures of her time in central Cuba. She is recognized for her extensive charitable works in ...

and Rosa Contreras. Her father died in 1873, and her mother moved to the US with her younger daughters, where Rosalía attended Edenhall School in Torresdale, Pennsylvania. She later travelled to France where she married a Cuban doctor, Domingo Sanchez Toledo, in 1883; they had five children together. She returned to Cuba in 1899, where she lived at an extensive property, Las Delicias, inherited from her parents and established what was then the world's largest collection of primates there.

Primatology

The collection included over 200 primates, from over forty species, some of whom were forced to wear clothes and live in the house with Abreu. She purchased her first primate, a female

macaque The macaques () constitute a genus (''Macaca'') of gregarious Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. The 23 species of macaques inhabit ranges throughout Asia, North Africa, and Europe (in Gibraltar). Macaques are principally f ...

, between 1892 and 1897, whilst living in France. Her first

, Chimpita, was acquired in 1902. However others were kept in large and airy cages, kept warm and fed vegetarian diets. Abreu also recognised the importance of social interaction for primates, and enabled them to spend time with one another. In 1906 Abreu established the world's first purpose-built primate nursery. On 27 April 1915, Abreu became the first person in the world to breed chimpanzees in captivity, following the birth of Anumá. The parents were Jimmy and Cucusa and a report of the birth was published by the anthropologist Louis Montané, a professor at the University of Cuba. Other chimpanzees owned by Abreu included: Jim (died 1935 in Philadelphia Zoological Garden), Mona (the first chimpanzee mother to give birth to twins in captivity), Bula, and Gua. In 1916

Isadora Duncan Angela Isadora Duncan (May 26, 1877, or May 27, 1878 – September 14, 1927) was an American-born dancer and choreographer, who was a pioneer of modern contemporary dance and performed to great acclaim throughout Europe and the United States. Bor ...

visited the collection and commented on its size. Whilst most notable for her work with chimpanzees,

orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ...

s also featured in Abreu's collection, including Guas and Guarina who later lived at Philadelphia Zoo. Welcoming to visitors and to researchers, Abreu hosted the psychologist

in Cuba in 1924, where he recorded many of the principles behind the care for the animals in her collection. He was accompanied on this research trip by Harold C. Bingham, Josephine Ball and Prince Chim, a chimpanzee. Abreu's work forms the basis for Yerkes' book on primatology entitled '' Almost Human.'' In 1926, Abreu was approached by the Russian scientist Ilya Ivanov, who enquired whether any of Abreu's male chimpanzees would be willing to inseminate a female human volunteer in order to breed a human-ape hybrid. Initially Abreu agreed to supply an animal for the 'experiment'; however following threats from the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

she retracted her permission.

Legacy

Abreu died at her estate of Villa Palatino on 3 November 1930. At the time of her death, only seven chimpanzees had been bred in captivity, including four on her estate. After her death, Abreu's son Pierre established the Rosalia Abreu Memorial Fund at Yale Laboratories of Primate Biology (YLPB), which supported research publication. Several of her chimpanzees were transferred to Yerkes' laboratory after Abreu's death. Another legacy from her estate was the foundation of the Industrial Technical School for Women of Rosalia Abreu's Foundation, which was established in 1934.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abreu, Rosalía 1862 births 1930 deaths Women primatologists Primatologists 20th-century women philanthropists Cuban philanthropists 20th-century Cuban people 20th-century Cuban women 19th-century Cuban people 19th-century Cuban women People from Villa Clara Province