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| James Brooks, a 10-year-old from London, Ontario, Canada, has raised thousands of dollars for Great Ape Trust of Iowa. |
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10-year-old infatuated with apes raises hundreds of dollars for conservation
Des Moines, Iowa – July 30, 2007 – James Brooks is typical of most 10-year-old boys. He plays baseball, hangs out with his friends and is concerned about the same things as his peers, with one notable distinction: There’s not much the youth from London, Ontario, Canada, wouldn’t do to help out great apes.
What James, who visited Great Ape Trust to help celebrate the bonobo Elikya’s 10th birthday last month, has done will make your jaw drop, your eyebrows raise and your heart sing.
At his birthday party and for Christmas, instead of presenting his guests and family a wish list, he has asked for donations to Great Ape Trust, a world-class scientific research center 700 miles away, in Des Moines, Iowa. He has raked leaves to raise money for great apes. He’s given up his allowance. In all, he’s given about $500 in the past year to support The Trust’s scientific research into the origins and future of culture, language, tools and intelligence.
And get this: Though he lives half a continent away in Canada, he raised more than $1,200 for The Trust’s 2nd Annual Bowlathon for Great Apes, a July 28 fund-raiser for ape conservation in the wild, and he planned to bowl that night with his family in London, Ontario.
Certainly The Trust has received larger gifts, but it would be difficult to find a donor whose contributions were more heartfelt. James became a vegetarian the day the bonobo P-Suke died. He remains in contact with zookeepers at the Columbus Zoo, home of a dozen bonobos, after a 15-year-old male bonobo, Mambo, developed a viral respiratory infection and died on Christmas Eve. He adopted a bonobo at Lola ya Bonobo, a sanctuary supported by Great Ape Trust that cares for bonobos orphaned by deforestation, the bushmeat and pet trades, and the civil war that continues in Democratic Republic of Congo. James is convinced that he enjoys a special relationship with the bonobo Nyota, a resident of Great Ape Trust and, at age 9, an individual James calls his peer.
James’s concern for the welfare of great apes has been demonstrated in countless other ways. Here’s a short list: He joined the Canadian Ape Alliance. He wrote school papers on ape language research pioneers Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Dr. Duane Rumbaugh, scientists at The Trust and James’s hero and the person he most admires, respectively. He gave a speech at school on global warming, did a science project on the effects of coltan mining on the indigenous great ape population in Democratic Republic of Congo, and completed a Venn diagram tracing the relationship between chimpanzees and bonobos. He expanded his vocabulary of primate terms by adding “personal words” each day, he’s consulted virtually every bonobo Web site on the Internet, and he’s read or at least viewed dozens of books on bonobos and great apes.
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| Neil Brooks says most of his knowledge about bonobos and other types of great ape has been learned from his son James. |
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James is practically a walking encyclopedia on ape awareness. His father, Neil, an English teacher at the University of Western Ontario, prefaces every statement he makes about bonobos or other types of great ape with this qualifier: “I only know these things through James, by the way …”
As recently as two years ago, the elder Brooks might have had to go elsewhere to gain as much knowledge about bonobos and other types of great ape. But then James was introduced to bonobos through a television program on endangered species, and a curiosity that seems destined to ignite a lifetime passion was sparked.
Though charming by any account, the importance of James’s interest in great apes and his commitment to activities at The Trust is not lost on scientists conducting the groundbreaking research.
“Children have a natural inclination to ask questions, which is the root of all good science,” said Dr. Rob Shumaker, director of The Trust’s orangutan research program. “When that curiosity is combined with the opportunity to observe great apes, it creates a powerful platform for educating about the process of science. This type of positive experience with science at a young age can have a lifelong benefit for children.
“James is a great example of how one person, of any age, can have a big effect on great ape conservation. He's a budding primatologist, and will surely make great contributions to the field in the future."
If you admire nothing else about this boy, admire his thirst for knowledge.
Intrigued by the television documentary by “how intelligent bonobos are, how they can communicate, how much they are like us and how peaceful they are,” James began his investigation into bonobos, man’s closest living relatives with nearly 99 percent similar DNA. His Web-based inquiry led him to articles about the world’s most famous bonobo, Kanzi, and later Great Ape Trust, where Kanzi has lived since 2005. He e-mailed Savage-Rumbaugh, a Great Ape Trust scientist who was a pioneer in ape cognition and is one of two in the world studying language research with bonobos. The other, William M. Fields, is The Trust’s director of bonobo research.
At Savage-Rumbaugh’s suggestion, James made a video introducing himself to the bonobos and what was the beginning of a cross-species and cross-cultural friendship. “I didn’t know that much about them, so I did stuff I thought they would like,” he said. “I showed them my room and I showed them my stuffed animals and the blanket with baby orangutans on it.”
He also ran around his room, simulating the game of “chase and tickle” popular with the bonobos. The language board, called a lexigram, that bonobos use to communicate has symbols for both chase and tickle, a game or communication through kinesics that bonobos often ask their human colleagues and guests to play as a means of getting to know them better.
In subsequent videos – James has produced four in all – he engaged in activities he thought would be of interest to the apes. He knows that Panbanisha likes to be in the kitchen, so he filmed himself making a salad. He arranged the blankets in his room in a nest, as the matriarch Matata might. He displayed a ball and asked Kanzi if he wanted it. When bonobo caretaker Judy Freiboth confirmed that Kanzi indeed wanted the ball, his favorite toy, James presented it to him during his visit last month.
It is Nyota, however, with whom James feels the most affinity and the closest bond. “Nyota is always the one who really likes my videos,” James said. “Judy said Nyota thinks me and him are a lot alike and like the same things.”
To thank James for the videos, the bonobos drew pictures for their new Canadian friend. “It looks like Nyota tried the hardest,” James said.
James is emerging as an unofficial ambassador of sorts for Great Ape Trust and great apes in general. His friends are becoming ape-literate as well, though James hardly proselytizes about the subject. “They think it’s cool but we don’t talk much about it,” he said. “They just know I like monkeys and apes.”
And they know that although apes and monkeys are both members of the primate order, they are not synonymous. “If they say something wrong, like calling apes monkeys or calling a bonobo a monkey, I will correct them,” James said.
James, who just finished Grade 5 at his London, Ontario, school, has been encouraged by teachers to continue his inquiry into great apes, and he’s brimming with ideas about how to make learning more meaningful for the students – everything from writing pen-pal letters to children in countries where great apes are indigenous to engaging in bilingual communication. For example, French is one of the dominant languages in Congo, and James is involved in a French immersion program that helps Canadian children acquire French as a second language in much the same way that bonobos at Great Ape Trust acquire language.
“The teachers are very good about letting him focus his projects on the things that interest him,” said Neil. “This lets his friends and classmates in school know about bonobos, and if people know more about bonobos, they would do more to be sure we can keep them on our planet.”
This year, the second that James visited Great Ape Trust as a member, he spent more time learning about the three resident orangutans, Azy, Knobi and Allie. “I like all apes,” he said. “I like all primates.”
When he has grown up and completed his education, James wants to work at Great Ape Trust as a researcher, a goal that, given James’s young age, makes Neil Brooks enormously proud of his son.
“He knows this is what he wants in life,” Neil said. “Helping bonobos is the most important thing to him. It’s very clear that he has found something he is very passionate about.”
Great Ape Trust Background
Great Ape Trust of Iowa is a scientific research facility in southeast Des Moines dedicated to understanding the origins and future of culture, language, tools and intelligence. When completed, Great Ape Trust will be the largest great ape facility in North America and one of the first worldwide to include all four types of great ape – bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans – for noninvasive interdisciplinary studies of their cognitive and communicative capabilities.
Great Ape Trust is dedicated to providing sanctuary and an honorable life for great apes, studying the intelligence of great apes, advancing conservation of great apes and providing unique educational experiences about great apes. Great Ape Trust of Iowa is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit organization and is certified by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). |
Great Ape Trust is certified by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums
