Crazy Animal Facts

Smooth Talking Primates

Here are some facts about animals and language (as well as a few other things)!

One orangutan named Chantek could use a restroom, do chores, and make sure his humans gave him cheeseburgers!

Source: Katz, Brigit. "Chantek, an Orangutan Who Knew Sign Language, Has Died at 39." Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 8 Aug. 2017, www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/chantek-orangutan-who-knew-sign-language-has-died-39-180964390/. 

Animals can tell stories. Michael the gorilla signed to researchers about how his family was killed by bushmeat hunters. He even made new gestures to 

Source: Morin, Roc. "A Conversation With Koko the Gorilla." The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 28 Aug. 2015, . 

Gorillas actually use gestures in the wild to communicate!

Source: Morin, Roc. "A Conversation With Koko the Gorilla." The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 28 Aug. 2015, .

Koko the gorilla knew when Easter and her birthday were near and prepared for them way ahead of time.

Source: Morin, Roc. "A Conversation With Koko the Gorilla." The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 28 Aug. 2015, .
 

Micahel the gorillas believed that cats are bad for killing birds. He proved all the haters wrong by expressing his own opinion!

Source: Morin, Roc. "A Conversation With Koko the Gorilla." The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 28 Aug. 2015, . 

Koko the gorilla was traumatized after watching a documentary about bush-meat hunting. The next day, she looked at ads for meat and signed "shame there."

Source: Hannaford, Alex. "Conversations with Koko: an audience with world's favourite 'talking' gorilla." The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, Sept. 2011, . 

Kanzi the bonobo translated the symbol for yogurt into a vocalization, which his sister (in another room) understood to be yogurt.

Source: Raffaele, Paul. "Speaking Bonobo." Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Nov. 2006, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/speaking-bonobo-134931541/.

Syntax-the order of words changing the meaning of an expression-is not unique to humans. The Japanese great tit uses syntax in its vocalizations.

Source: Suzuki, Toshitaka N., et al. "Experimental evidence for compositional syntax in bird calls." Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 8 Mar. 2016, .

Recursion-the ability to insert phrases within a phrase-is not unique to humans alone.

Here is an example of recursion. Take the expression "she saw a dog." Now insert it into another phrase and you got recursion.  He heard that she saw a dog.

Bottlenose dolphins use recursion. Chomsky was wrong.

Source: Fulton, James T. "Vision, Hearing and Language of the dolphin, Tursiops truncatus." Neuron Research, Neuron Research, June 2014, neuronresearch.net/dolphin/. 

Kanzi the bonobo started learning language (via a keyboard with symbols) after he was separated from his mother and asked for his mother back.

Source: Hamilton, Jon. "A Voluble Visit with Two Talking Apes." NPR, NPR, 8 July 2006, . 

Panbanisha the bonobo (Kanzi's sister) described a rude visitor as a "monster!"

Source: Hamilton, Jon. "A Voluble Visit with Two Talking Apes." NPR, NPR, 8 July 2006, .

Panbanisha not only cooks food, but when she saw a video of herself cooking, she narrated what would happen via lexigrams.

Source: Paulson, Amanda. "English 101 for bonobos." The Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 May 2007, .

Japanese tits imagine a snake when they say their vocalization for it.

Source: Keim, Brandon. "'Delightful' Experiments Reveal What Birds See in Their Mind's Eye." National Geographic, National Geographic Society, 9 Feb. 2018, news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/japanese-songbirds-process-language-syntax/.

 Koko the gorilla loved puns.

Source: McGraw, Peter, and Joel Warner. "Do Animals Have a Sense of Humor?" Slate Magazine, Slate Magazine, 26 Mar. 2014, . 

Alex the parrot asked what color he was!!

Source: Wise, Steven M. Drawing the line: science and the case for animal rights. Perseus Books, 2013.

Koko the gorilla invented signs when she doesn't have a word for something.

Source: Hannaford, Alex. "Conversations with Koko: an audience with world's favourite 'talking' gorilla." The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, Sept. 2011, .
 

Prairie dogs will describe the size, color of clothes, and if a human has a gun.

Source: Pachniewska, Amanda. "The Linguistic Genius of Prairie Dogs." Animal Cognition, Animal Cognition, 8 June 2016, .