Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind (25 page)

Matata walks in the woods with baby Kanzi on her back. Foods were hidden under and around certain trees with markers on them. We found that we needed the markers to recall where we had hidden the food, but Matata did not. She could remember individual trees with uncanny precision. (
Photograph by Sue Savage-Rumbaugh)

A bonobo in the wild carries her infant similarly. She must remember not only specific trees, but when they are fruiting as well. Bonobo mothers carry their infants up to five or six years of age, but only very young infants, less than five or six months, are carried continually. (
Photograph by Frans Lanting)

Kanzi shows me where he wishes to go by gesturing. He began to gesture at about twelve months of age and continued to use gestures intermingled with lexigrams after he began mastering the formal symbols. Bonobos do not typically direct others by such gestures in the wild. (
Photograph by Elizabeth Pugh)

Kanzi at four years of age talking to himself on the keyboard. He began accompanying people on daily outings in the woods slightly before his third birthday. By four years of age he knew the forest far better than we did. He hated the cold months when he had to stay inside, so in the fall we let him wear sweaters to extend the time he could be outside. (
Photograph by Elizabeth Pugh)

By three years of age, it became apparent that Kanzi was learning lexigrams readily all on his own. He especially liked traveling out-of-doors, so we developed a portable keyboard. Here is our earliest attempt, a computer in a suitcase in 1983, long before the appearance of the first commercial portable computers. When Kanzi touched a symbol, it lighted up and the computer kept a record. (
Photograph by Elizabeth Pugh)

Kanzi uses the computer to comment “apple” after seeing someone take an apple out of the backpack. Kanzi often commented on things when he was small, whether he wanted them or not. (
Photograph by Elizabeth Pugh)

Between four and five years of age, Kanzi loved to take the keyboard aside and say things to himself. If we approached and tried to see what he was saying, he would pick up the keyboard and scurry further away. He could communicate by pointing to the symbols with the keyboard laid flat on the ground, but he preferred to prop it up in the vertical position as he saw us do. Here he struggles to properly stand his keyboard up. (
Photographs by Elizabeth Pugh)

Kanzi watching one of his many favorite television programs. We set aside a scheduled time each day when Kanzi could watch TV. He selected his favorite programs by pointing to photos on the outside of the various tape cassette boxes. Often we made videotapes for him of things that were familiar from around the lab, using a “story line” to keep his attention. Kanzi typically prefers our “bonobo-oriented” videos, but also likes movies such as
Greystoke, Iceman
, and
Quest for Fire
, in which the actors portray “primitive man.” (
Photograph by Sue Savage-Rumbaugh)

Bonobos frequently express pleasure and happiness by smiling just as we do. Unfortunately, many people mistake Kanzi’s smile for an expression of aggression because his teeth look frightful to them. Kanzi, however, uses exactly the same facial muscles to produce a smile as we do and his lips and eyes assume precisely the same countenance as ours when we smile. (
Photograph by Sue Savage-Rumbaugh)