Use of Human Languages By Captive Great Apes

By Duane Rumbaugh, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and William Fields
World Atlas of Great Apes and Their Conservation
(UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, University of California Press; 2005)

Some believe that the extinction of nonhuman great apes is preferable to preserving them forever in captivity, on the grounds that their nobility is diminished in artificial habitats. Others hold that great apes in captivity can lead happy lives, that the value of the preserved genetic material will prove to be very great, and that the human psyche would be significantly damaged by the loss of these species. This view embraces preservation strategies that create a diversity of niches for great apes that include the wild, zoos, reserves, refuges, sanctuaries, and even laboratories.

Chimpanzees and bonobos have lived in a captive research facility at Georgia State University in the USA since 1971, most notably sponsored by the work of Duane Rumbaugh and Sue Savage-Rumbaugh. This research has explored the mental abilities and cognitive character of great apes, in the process significantly changing our view of Pan and how these nonhumans might exist in human-modified landscapes. Two methods have been used to teach human languages to great apes: one uses sign language; the other, explored here, uses graphical symbols that represent words (lexigrams). The following is a brief account of the research initiatives of the Rumbaughs, the great apes that have participated in the research at the Language Research Center of Georgia State University, and the future plans for their lives in coexistence with humans.