Washoe (chimpanzee)

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Washoe (* to September 1965 in West Africa ; † the 30th October 2007 in Ellensburg ) one was chimpanzee in the late 1960s as the first animal sign of the American Sign Language ( American Sign Language , ASL) learned and actively used. The researchers who worked with her called her the first non-human being to learn a human language. Washoe was born in West Africa, probably in September 1965. Her birthday was celebrated on June 21st, since the Washoe Project began on that day in 1966 . Her unofficial "family name" is Washoe Pan satyrus . From 1980 until her death on October 30, 2007, she lived in a large outdoor area at Central Washington University . Washoe was 42 years old.

Washoe's trainer was Roger Fouts , who earned his doctorate through this study in the work group of Robert Allen Gardner and his wife Beatrix Tugendhat Gardner . Washoe learned several hundred ASL signs as well as various combinations of signs, most of which consisted of two or three gestures . After a short time she was also spontaneously combining signs in a way that made sense for communication with her trainer, without having been specifically taught these combinations. Washoe even taught her "adoptive son" Loulis, who came to her in 1978, some ASL signs and conversed with him and with other chimpanzees using the ASL signs.

More than two decades later, these studies, and the fact that humans and chimpanzees are closely related, helped spark the discussion on " human rights for the great apes " ( Great Ape Project ).

See also

literature

  • Roger Fouts, Stephen Tukel Mills: Our closest relatives. Learn from chimpanzees what it means to be human. Limes Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-8090-3013-9 (also published in paperback by Droemer Knaur in 2002, ISBN 3-426-77420-8 ).

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