Kanzi

See Kanji for the Chinese characters that are used in Japanese

Kanzi
File:Meet kanzi lg.jpg Kanzi of the Bonobos
Born	(1980-10-28) October 28, 1980 Georgia State University
Occupation	Most Literate Non-Human

Kanzi (born October 28, 1980), is a male Bonobo who has been featured in several studies on great ape language. According to Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, a primatologist who has studied the bonobo throughout his life, Kanzi has exhibited advanced linguistic aptitude. Other scholars, such as Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker contest the claim that any ape can learn language.

Biography

Born to Lorel and Bosandjo at Yerkes field station at Georgia State University, Kanzi was stolen and adopted shortly after birth by a more dominant female, Matata. As an infant, Kanzi accompanied his mother to sessions where she was taught language through keyboard lexigrams, but showed little interest in the lessons.

It was a great surprise to researchers then when one day, while Matata was away, Kanzi began competently using the lexigrams, becoming not only the first observed ape to have learned aspects of language naturalistically rather than through direct training, but also the first observed bonobo to appear to use some elements of language at all. Within a short time, Kanzi had mastered the ten words that researchers had been struggling to teach his adoptive mother, and he has since learned more than two hundred more. According to Smithsonian Magazine, November 2006, Kanzi by now has learned 348 lexigrams, and understands over 3000 spoken English words. When he hears a spoken word (through headphones, to filter out nonverbal clues), he points to the correct lexigram.

Also notable are Kanzi's ability to understand aspects of spoken language and associate it with lexigrams, his ability to understand simple grammatical sentences, and possibly his invention of novel vocalized words. According to a Discover article, Kanzi is an accomplished tool user.

Kanzi is Panbanisha's brother. Kanzi, his mother, brother, and sister now live at the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, the only primate research center in the world dedicated to studying cognitive skills of all four types of non-human great apes. Kanzi is the Alpha Male of the resident community of Bonobos. His mother, Matata, is the chief leader (in the matriachal society of bonobos, a male's position is primarily determined by the position of the females he is related to).

Kanzi and the Marshmallows

In an outing in the Georgia woods, Kanzi touched the symbols for "marshmallows" and "fire." "Given matches and marshmallows, Kanzi snapped twigs for a fire, lit them with the matches and toasted the marshmallows on a stick." (Anecdote told by Savage-Rumbaugh to Paul Raffaele, published in Smithsonian magazine, November 2006.)

Kanzi and the Maori War Dance

Paul Raffaele, at Savage-Rumbaugh's request, performed a Maori War Dance for the Bonobos. This dance includes thigh-slapping, chest-thumping, and hollering. Almost all the Bonobos present interpreted this as an aggressive display, and reacted with loud screams, tooth-baring, and pounding the walls and floor. All but Kanzi, who remained perfectly calm, and conveyed in Bonobo language (interpreted by Savage-Rumbaugh to Raffaele) that he knew that no threat was meant, but that the performance should be apart from the other Bonobos so as not to upset them. So a private performance in another room was successfully, peacefully and happily carried out. (Smithsonian, November 2006). Since bonobos are matriarchal, Kanzi is not the leader of the community, but his special skills in understanding humans and communicating with them lead him to having special privileges and make his life more pleasant.

Kanzi vocalized a message to his sister: Yogurt!

Sue Savage-Rumbaugh has observed Kanzi in communication to his sister. In this experiment, Kanzi was kept in a separate room of the Great Ape Project and shown some yogurt. Kanzi started vocalizing the word "yogurt" in an unknown "language"; his sister, who could not see the yogurt, then pointed to the lexigram for yogurt.

Kanzi's Other Achievements

Kanzi's accomplishments also include tool use and tool crafting. Kanzi is an accomplished stone tool maker and is quite proud of his ability to flake Oldowan style cutting knives. He learned this skill from Dr. Nick Toth, who is an anthropologist with the Stone Age Institute in Bloomington, Indiana. The stone knives Kanzi create are very sharp and can cut animal hide and thick ropes. He is also a musician, and has played with Sir Paul McCartney and Peter Gabriel.

Kanzi's appearance

According to Raffaele, Kanzi "has the mien of an aging patriarch - he's balding and paunchy with serious, deep-set eyes." (Smithsonian, November 2006). Like all Bonobos, he has longish black hair and a black face.

See also

• Koko
• Washoe
• Nim Chimpsky
• Alex (parrot)
• Akeakamai
• Clever Hans
• Kosik

References

• de Waal, Frans (2005). Our Inner Ape, ISBN 1-57322-312-3.
• Raffaele, Paul (2006), "The Smart and Swinging Bonobo", Smithsonian, Volume 37, Number 8 (November 2006).

External links

• Kanzi page (with photos) at Great Ape Trust website
• Bonobo language lexigrams at Great Ape Trust website
• Videos of Kanzi at Great Ape Trust website
• A review of Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind by Dr. S. Goldin-Meadow