

In some cases, monkeys and apes can live side by side, or look similar, but after a little research, it’s obvious that there are a number of significant differences between the two groups. Kanzi is also an accomplished stone-tool maker.Can you tell the difference between apes and monkeys? For much of history, there was no ape vs monkey debate, and the terms were used interchangeably, even though apes and monkeys are actually very different animals. When he “speaks,” his lexigram usage follows rules of grammar and syntax, according to researchers at the Great Ape Trust in Iowa, where Kanzi now resides. Kanzi understands spoken English and knows close to 400 symbols. In the early 1980s, psychologist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, then of Georgia State University, was trying to teach Kanzi’s mom, Matata, to use the lexigrams instead, Kanzi was the one who mastered the symbols. Kanzi: Kanzi, a bonobo, doesn’t use sign language he uses different combinations of lexigrams, or symbols, to communicate. (Critics, however, remain skeptical about some of Koko’s supposed abilities due to the lack of recent scientific publications supporting the claims. It also claims the gorilla has an IQ somewhere between 70 and 95 (the average human IQ is 100). According to the Gorilla Foundation, Koko knows 1,000 signs and understands spoken English. Koko’s sign-language training began in 1972 with then-graduate student Francine (Penny) Patterson of Stanford University. Rogers (and maybe less well-known for her encounter with Captain James T. Koko: Koko the gorilla is probably best known for her love of kittens and Mr. Today, you can visit Chantek at Zoo Atlanta, his home since 1997. He also showed signs of being self-aware: he could recognize himself in a mirror. During eight years of study, Chantek learned 150 signs. In 1978, anthropologist Lyn Miles of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga began studying an orangutan named Chantek. The sad story of Nim’s life after the project ended is told in the new documentary Project Nim.Ĭhantek: Chimpanzees are not the only talking apes. In the end, Terrace concluded Nim never really learned language he had merely been trained to imitate his teachers to get rewards. (Washoe had been treated like a person too but had her own trailer.) Later, Nim was removed from the family and his language lessons moved to a lab on Columbia’s campus. At first, Nim-full name Nim Chimpsky, named after linguist Noam Chomsky who thought language was unique to humans-was raised in a human household.


Nim: After the success with Washoe, psychologist Herbert Terrace of Columbia University decided to replicate the project. For more on Washoe’s life, read Roger Fouts’ Next of Kin. He was the first ape to learn signs from other apes, not humans. By the end of Washoe’s life in 2007, she knew about 250 signs and could put different signs together to make simple combinations like “Gimmie Sweet” and “You Me Go Out Hurry.” Washoe’s adopted son Loulis also learned to sign-by watching his mother. Later, psychologists Roger and Deborah Fouts, now retired from Central Washington University, continued the work. In 1966, they started working with Washoe. Washoe: In the 1960s, psychologists Allen and Beatrix Gardner of the University of Nevada, Reno recognized that chimpanzees naturally gesture a lot and thought chimps would be well suited for sign language. Viki’s tenure as a talking ape didn’t last long she died at the age of seven of viral meningitis. With the Hayeses moving her lips for her, Viki learned to utter “mama.” Eventually, with much difficulty, she managed to say three other words-papa, cup and up-on her own. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Keith and Catherine Hayes of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology, then located in Orange Park, Florida, adopted Viki and raised her at home as if she were a human baby. Viki: Viki, a chimpanzee, came closest to being a real talking ape. Here’s a look at some of the more famous “talking” apes. Over the years, researchers have succeeded-and failed-in teaching apes to use language. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t have the capacity for language-sign language, after all, doesn’t require any vocalization. In the real world, apes can’t speak they have thinner tongues and a higher larynx, or vocal box, than people, making it hard for them to pronounce vowel sounds.
#Chimpanzee monkey ape movie
In the new movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the leader of the ape revolution can talk.
