Des Moines, Iowa – September 13, 2010 – He’s only three months old and weighs just a few pounds but already the scientists at Great Ape Trust are confident that the baby bonobo named Teco could play an important role in ape language studies at the Des Moines-based research facility. The son of Kanzi and Elikya, Teco was born on June 1, 2010. A third-generation bonobo to be reared in Great Ape Trust’s hallmark Pan/Homo (Pan paniscus/Homo sapiens) environment, Teco is a portent for the future of ape language research, a 40-year body of work by Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh; her mentor Dr. Duane Rumbaugh and Great Ape Trust Scientific Director, William M. Fields.
“Teco is an extraordinary baby. We’ve already observed a unique relationship with his bonobo and human caretakers – the eye gaze, his ability to respond and the nonverbal interaction,” said Fields. “The synergy of that bicultural group working together has a high level of influence on Teco’s development. He started much earlier in his human cultural rearing than the other bonobo babies – because of that, he’s simply going to be a smarter and better baby for those reasons alone.“
The Great Ape Trust bonobos aren’t the only apes with language, but only at The Trust are the research approaches coupled with a rearing environment that incubates unique results.
“The science at Great Ape Trust is in the rearing,” explains Fields, who since 1997 has dedicated his life to learning about and, at times, living with the bonobos. “In terms of science, the importance of this bonobo birth cannot be overstated. Teco represents the future of 40 years of research, which offers us the opportunity to explore the ratcheting effect of culture in nonhumans and the effects of culture upon their genetic makeup and how genes are expressed over time.”
Duane Rumbaugh, an Iowa native and scientist emeritus at Great Ape Trust, pioneered ape language research in the early 1970s with the LANA project at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta. His work led to Savage-Rumbaugh’s groundbreaking work with the chimpanzees Sherman and Austin and eventually the bonobo language program with Kanzi in the 1980s.
“I’ve raised bonobo babies and I’ve raised human babies and Teco is unlike any I’ve ever been around,” said Savage-Rumbaugh, a scientist with special standing at Great Ape Trust. “He changes constantly and quickly – there’s something new with him every day. He’s very special.”
YOU MAY VIEW NEW VIDEO OF TECO AND LISTEN TO WILLIAM FIELDS, DIRECTOR OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AT GREAT APE TRUST, DISCUSS TECO'S DEVELOPMENT AND POTENTIAL TO THE BONOBO LANGUAGE PROGRAM BY CLICKING THE "TECO INTRIGUES TRUST SCIENTISTS" VIDEO IN THE RESOURCE BOX IN THE LEFT MARGIN OF THIS ARTICLE.
Background Information
Great Ape Trust is a scientific research facility in Des Moines, Iowa, dedicated to understanding the origins and future of culture, language, tools and intelligence, and to the preservation of endangered great apes in their natural habitats. Announced in 2002 and receiving its first ape residents in 2004, Great Ape Trust is home to a colony of seven bonobos involved in noninvasive interdisciplinary studies of their cognitive and communicative capabilities, and to two orangutans. To learn more about Great Ape Trust, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, go to GreatApeTrust.org
