Rosalía Abreu

Rosalía Abreu (15 January 1862 – 3 November 1930) was a Cuban philanthropist and animal-keeper who was the first person to successfully breed chimpanzees in captivity. In 1926, she initially supported research proposed by Ilya Ivanov to breed a humanzee, although she later retracted the decision to involve her primates in the experiment. American eugenicist Robert Yerkes 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, Cuba. Her father was a plantation owner named Pedro Nolasco González Abreu y Jimenes. She had two sisters: Marta Abreu 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. 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. Mona (the first chimpanzee mother to give birth to twins in captivity), Bula, and Gua. In 1916 Isadora Duncan visited the collection and commented on its size. 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 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.