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Synopsis
"Kanzi offers any number of crucial insights into the workings of the mind."––The New York Times Book Review
The remarkable story of the "talking" ape who is proving animals can think
Though he cannot physically speak, Kanzi understands an impressive amount of spoken English and communicates by punching symbols on a special keyboard. This book tells Kanzi's incredible story and explores its intriguing ramifications.
SUE SAVAGE-RUMBAUGH (Decatur, Georgia) is one of the world's leading ape-language researchers. ROGER LEWIN (Cambridge, Massachusetts) is the author of 12 books, including co-authorship of the best-selling Origins with Richard Leakey.
Publishers Weekly
When ape-language research fell into disfavor in the 1970s, Savage-Rumbaugh, associate professor of biology at Georgia State Univ. and a leading researcher in the field, set a new course, focusing on apes' ability to comprehend symbols. At the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in Atlanta, she worked with common chimpanzees and bonobos (pygmy chimps), using a computer-based keyboard system. With Roger Lewin (coauthor with Richard Leakey of Origins), she tells the remarkable story of Kanzi, a bonobo who at 14 understands spoken English well enough that his teachers spell out words they don't want him to hear. He asks and answers questions and invents games by manipulating an electronic keyboard. His accomplishments prove chimps can spontaneously acquire language skills through social interaction in a language-rich environment. For readers interested in the origin of language and those who have followed Washoe, Koko and Lucy. Photos not seen by PW. (Oct.)