Chantek

Chantek (born December 17, 1977 ; † August 7, 2017 ) was a male orangutan who was born in the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center and learned to communicate with people using American Sign Language (ASL) as part of a research project . The term "Chantek" comes from the Malay language and means "beautiful".

Chantek project

In the fall of 1978 Chantek was brought to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga , where the "Project Chantek" was established. The aim of this long-term project, led by Lyn Miles , it was not the general language ability of apes to prove, but to gain insight into the cognitive and communicative processes of language development.

During the project, Chantek grew up in constant contact with people. He was taught social behavior and behavioral rules ( enculturation ). American Sign Language (ASL), the dominant sign language in the USA and Canada, was selected as a means of communication . Some of Chantek's nursing staff consisted of deaf people who used this sign language throughout.

After seven years of training, Chantek had a language range of 140 words, including objects, actions, proper names and pronouns . Chantek himself developed new combinations of characters to describe things and actions. So he called the contact lens liquid of his supervisors "eye + drink" ("eye + drink"). Its syntax, however, remained limited and did not reach the level achieved by the female gorilla Koko , for example . However, no other orangutan has so far had a larger vocabulary.

In the course of the project, Chantek also learned the basics of dealing with money . By completing tasks, he was able to acquire coins that he could exchange for treats from his supervisor Miles. Chantek tried to increase his fortune by breaking the poker chips he initially used and thus exchange more. For this purpose, after switching to metal coins, he tried to make his own coins with the help of aluminum foil. Chantek has also been shown to have the ability to deceive. So he pretended to have swallowed a stolen eraser in order not to have to return it.

Classification of intelligence development

In a test based on the Bayley Scale for Child Development , Chantek reached the level of a 13.6-month-old human child at 24 months of age. At the age of 55 months, he was classified as a toddler between 18 and 14 months using the Uzgiris-Hunt Infacy Assessment Scales . At the age of five and a half, he was certified as a two-year-old child, with the skills of a four-year-old child in some areas (e.g. language comprehension and tool use).

Further development

From 1986 to 1997 Chantek was again housed at the Yerkes Primate Research Center because the research facilities at the University of Tennessee were too small for him. He was not subjected to any further language training there and gained a lot of weight during this time. Chantek weighed about 450 pounds when he moved to the Atlanta Zoo in 1997. It was here that Lyn Miles resumed work with him. She found that even after more than a decade, he still had knowledge of sign language. Chantek's weight was drastically reduced through a diet program at the Atlanta Zoo.

Chantek's proven self-confidence and his level of development led to the fact that he was repeatedly used by scientists and animal rights activists as an example to demand basic personal rights for great apes.

The documentary They Call Him Chantek shows the close bond between Chantek and the researcher Lyn Miles, who tried in the film over a period of one year to enable the orang to communicate verbally by means of a speech synthesizer .

literature

• H. Lyn White Miles, Sue Taylor Parker, Kathleen Rita Gibson: The Cognitive Foundations for Reference in a Signing Orangutan . In: Language and Intelligence in Monkeys and Apes: Comparative Developmental Perspectives . Cambridge University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-521-45969-9 , pp. 511-539.
• Chantek the Beautiful, in: William Allen Hillix, Duane M. Rumbaugh: Animal Bodies, Human Minds: Ape, Dolphin, and Parrot Language Skills . Springer, 2004, ISBN 0-306-47739-4 , pp. 189-200.
• Steven M. Wise: Chantek . In: Drawing the Line: Science and the Case for Animal Rights . Basic Books, 2003, ISBN 0-7382-0810-8 , pp. 179-210.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Zoo family mourns passing of Chantek - Zoo Atlanta . In: Zoo Atlanta . August 7, 2017 ( zooatlanta.org [accessed August 8, 2017]).
2. ↑ Teaching Sign Language to Chantek, the Orangutan, in: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics . (Pp. 110-111). Danny D. Steinberg, Natalia V. Sciarini, Pearson Education, 2006 ( ISBN 0-582-50575-5 )
3. ↑ Can animals think ?, Time Magazine, Aug. 29, 1999.
4. ^ Susan McCarthy: Rattling the Cage, Feb. 4, 2000.
5. ^ HLW Miles, in: "Language" and intelligence .
6. ↑ Minds of Their Own - Thinking and Awareness in Animals (p. 191 ff.). Lesley J. Rogers, Allen & Unwin, 1997, ISBN 1-86448-504-3 .
7. ^ Leigh Anne Monitor: Watch for the signs, ( September 2, 2006 memento on the Internet Archive ) Tennessee Alumnus, Volume 78, No. 3, 1998.
8. ↑ Legal Personhood for Animals: Advocates Call for Extending Human Rights to Animals, ( Memento of the original from June 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The Futurist, September 1, 2002. 
9. ^ They Call Him Chantek, Documentation, Survival Anglia / Cunliffe & Franklyn Production for Animal Planet.