A two-year-old baby Kanzi, who communicated with humans at an extraordinary level, created and used stone tools, and even learned to play video games, passed away at the age of 44 on the 18th (local time). The Ape Cognition and Conservation Initiative in Iowa, United States, announced on the 21st that Kanzi suddenly left the world where his bonobo companions are. According to the institute’s announcement, Kanzi was being treated for heart disease, but results from an autopsy to clarify the cause of death have yet to be released.
◇Understood English and adept at video games
Kanzi, a male bonobo, was born on Oct. 28, 1980, at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia. From the age of five, he was raised at the Language Research Institute at Georgia State University along with his sister Panbanisha, and in 2004, they moved to the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa. This trust closed in 2012 after Panbanisha's death amid animal welfare controversies. The current Ape Cognition and Conservation Initiative took over custody of Kanzi in 2013.
Bonobos, classified alongside chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans, are primates that belong to the family of humans. They resemble chimpanzees but are a different species. They diverged from chimpanzees around 2.5 million years ago and evolved separately. Humans split from a common ancestor with chimpanzees about 5 million years ago. In this sense, modern humans are closer to bonobos than to chimpanzees.
The Ape Cognition and Conservation Initiative stated, "Kanzi was a remarkable being who revolutionized understanding of animal cognition and communication." Kanzi was so well-known that he was featured in major American publications such as Time, The New York Times, and National Geographic.
Kanzi learned human language at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center with his adoptive mother, Matata. While his mother showed no interest in the classes, young Kanzi was different. He demonstrated an exceptional ability not only to use abstract symbols but also to understand colloquial English.
Bonobos cannot physically vocalize like humans. Instead, since the 1970s, primatologists have used symbols known as lexigrams to understand the thoughts and communication methods of chimpanzees and bonobos. Kanzi learned 300 lexigrams, allowing him to communicate with about 3,000 words. Researchers conducted an experiment when Kanzi was eight years old to see if he could follow and understand 660 vocal instructions similar to a two-year-old baby, and Kanzi exceeded the baby's abilities.
In addition to his language skills, Kanzi earned the nickname "bonobo genius" for making and using stone tools. He broke stones to create flakes and used them to cut cords, just as early humans did. He also learned to start fires with matches and cook food with the flames. Later on, Kanzi even learned video games, understanding how to win the arcade game Pac-Man and defeating the final boss in Minecraft.
◇Also learned sign language from gorilla Koko
Another primate famed for its ability to communicate with humans was Koko. While Kanzi learned English through symbols, gorilla Koko became adept in sign language, allowing her to communicate simply with people. Koko passed away at the age of 46 on June 19, 2018. The Gorilla Foundation in the U.S., which studied Koko, noted at the time, "During her life, Koko was an icon symbolizing interspecies communication and empathy, moving people around the world."
Koko was born on July 4, 1971, at the San Francisco Zoo. As a female lowland gorilla, she began learning sign language the year after her birth from a Stanford University researcher. Later, Koko was said to be able to use over 1,000 sign language signs and understand more than 2,000 English words. In 1998, with the help of a sign language interpreter, she even communicated with people online using English sentences such as "I like drinks."
As Koko's ability to converse with people using sign language became known, she was featured several times in TV documentaries and in National Geographic magazine. Footage of Koko appearing on television and conversing with people using sign language sparked interest in the language and cognitive abilities of gorillas and other primates. Dr. Patterson remarked, "Koko broke the stereotype of gorillas as merely wild animals, adding momentum to efforts for gorilla conservation."
Interestingly, it is said that bonobo Kanzi learned sign language by watching Koko's videos. This means that if Kanzi meets Koko in the afterlife, he could converse with her using sign language. What might they say about humans?
References
Ape Initiative, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MTsAgsqofrzT6Fl2CVbBlVfhVXBz0qSg/view