Kanzi
| Kanzi | |
|---|---|
.jpg) |
|
| Born |
October 28, 1980 Georgia State University |
| Known for | Intelligent use of lexigram |
| Children | Teco (June 1, 2010) |
| Relatives | Matata (mother) Panbanisha (sister) Nyota (nephew) Nathen (nephew) |
Kanzi (born October 28, 1980), also known by the lexigram 
(from the character ), is a male bonobo who has been featured in several studies on great ape language. According to Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, a primatologist who has studied the bonobo throughout his life, Kanzi has exhibited advanced linguistic aptitude.
Born to Lorel and Bosandjo at Yerkes field station at Emory University and moved to the Language Research Center at Georgia State University, Kanzi was stolen and adopted shortly after birth by a more dominant female, Matata. Kanzi and his sister (Matata's offspring, now deceased) moved to the Ape Cognition and Conservation Initiative (ACCI), formerly the Great Ape Trust, in Des Moines, Iowa, where Kanzi is the alpha male of the resident community of Bonobos. He turned 36 in October 2016.
As an infant, Kanzi accompanied Matata to sessions where Matata was taught language through keyboard lexigrams, but showed little interest in the lessons. It was a great surprise to researchers then when one day, while Matata was away, Kanzi began competently using the lexigrams, becoming not only the first observed ape to have learned aspects of language naturalistically rather than through direct training, but also the first observed bonobo to appear to use some elements of language at all. Within a short time, Kanzi had mastered the ten words that researchers had been struggling to teach his adoptive mother, and he has since learned more than two hundred more. When he hears a spoken word (through headphones, to filter out nonverbal clues), he points to the correct lexigram.
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Wikipedia