Thursday, August 6, 2009

Weird to do list


This is Sue Savage-Rumbaugh--whom I've blogged about before--and Kanzi, the bonobo she and other researchers have been studying all his life. One difference between her and previous ape language researchers is that her primary focus is on word comprehension rather than syntax (which other animal subjects turned out to have learned by rote rather than true understanding.) Kanzi does actually seem able to put together these crazy requests of hers.

Of course it's lucky when she said "Put the soap on your ball" he didn't think she said "balls." Knowing bonobos, that could've gotten messy.

2 comments:

susan said...

Too bad they didn't evolve a little faster instead of our current race of fast-tracked chimpanzees. Some days my imagination insists on seeing chimps everywhere.

Ben said...

Oh well, at least they have an alibi. "Hey man, I was just hanging out at the zoo when all that mess went down. My old lady? She was riding a bicycle in a tutu."