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Kanzi’s journey into the world of human language actually began a few years before his birth in 1980.  While working with a small group of Bonobos at a sanctuary that is now the Ape Cognition and Conservation Initiative, primatologist Duane Rumbaugh was developing studies to test the ability of primates to learn and apply human language.  He needed a medium to allow his primate subjects to respond to various questions and commands.  While sign language was feasible and had worked in prior primate language studies, the advent of affordable computer technology propelled Rumbaugh in 1971 to design a computer-controlled keyboard with abstract symbols on it.  Each symbol corresponded to a specific word that would be spoken aloud through a speaker when pressed.  Called a “lexigram,” this fancy keyboard allowed Duane Rumbaugh, and his now ex-wife Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, to communicate with their primates unlike ever before.

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Lana, a chimpanzee in the sanctuary where Duane Rumbaugh and Sue Savage Rumbaugh worked, with an early version of a lexigram.

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This clip from an Oprah interview shows Dr. Savage-Rumbaugh and Kanzi in the Des Moines, IA sanctuary.  Dr. Savage-Rumbaugh discuss Kanzi's capabilities and how she taught him what he knows.

Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CcVFjRPLLo (clip from 01:03-01:36)

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Bonobos are the closest extant genetic relative of human beings, sharing 99% of their genome with Homo sapiens sapiens (modern humans).  They therefore have a knack for learning human language compared other primates, especially their very close but somewhat less empathetic cousins, chimpanzees (Bonobos historically were called "pygmy chimpanzees").
Like young human children, Bonobos can pick up human language just from watching and hearing their human caretakers use words in context. Kanzi learned language this way through Dr. Savage-Rumbaugh’s work teaching his mother Matata how to use the lexigram.  Kanzi took to the lexigram quite naturally, and as seen in the video below, truly understands spoken words and can respond to them in a meaningful way through the lexigram.

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This clip shows Kanzi using his lexigram to coordinate a meeting with a former zookeeper over the phone.  His ability to associate voices and his memory recall are quite remarkable.

Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ_3l1z5r0s (clip from 01:47-03:59)

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The use of lexigrams in primate research is important as it helps test and demonstrate the capacity of primate brains for human language.  The free form communication shown by Kanzi through the lexigram reveals that he does not just mimic language as many other animals do.  Kanzi can actually understand, synthesize, and apply language as opposed to just repeating words as conditioned responses to stimuli.  Future research may look to see if there is a finite capacity (e.g. number of words known, level of grammar complexity) of human language for a Bonobo.  Perhaps Teco, Kanzi’s son who is being raised by Dr. Savage-Rumbaugh, can shine some more light into this area of research as he grows up.

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Kanzi and his massive lexigram!

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de Waal, Frans. “The 2011 TIME 100: Sue Savage-Rumbaugh.” TIME, Time Inc., 21 Apr. 2011, content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2066367_2066369_2066401,00.html.

Glaser, Linda B. “Workshop Explores Ape-Human Communication.” Cornell Chronicle, Cornell College of Arts & Sciences, 21 Nov. 2017, news.cornell.edu/stories/2017/11/workshop-explores-ape-human-communication.

Schweller, Ken. “Apes with Apps.” IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News, IEEE Spectrum, 29 June 2012, spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/apes-with-apps.

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Kanzi the Bonobo

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Head over to this link to test your own lexigram abilities: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1EkK3zhTtq0UYnc3b1JWLuTfG0KHZ98Ei9J_nYQdqZQk/edit

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Kanzi the bonobo has some tool making skills that may give insight into the abilities of our last common ancestor. Over the course of several years in the 90s, Kanzi honed in on his ability to make stone tools that largely resemble the Oldowan tools made by early hominins. Some researchers believe the throwing method Kanzi uses to flake the stones can clue us in to how tools were made 2.6 million years ago. Despite this exciting information, it’s necessary to note that Kanzi, who was raised in captivity, is demonstrating the capability to learn how to make stone tools while other bonobos do not often display this behavior naturally.

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Not only does this task display his ability to make tools, but it also shows how Kanzi is able to retain information taught by the humans around him.

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Oldowan core and flakes from 2.3 million years ago
(Smithsonian)

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Kanzi's stone tools in the 2011 experiments (Roffman et al., 2012).

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Kanzi and stone tools: more than 10 years later

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Kanzi and stone tools: more than 10 years later

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More recent experiments involving Kanzi’s ability have shown that he has refined the technique taught to him by Dr. Toth in the 90s. Unlike the previous video, the 2011 study involved Kanzi in natural scenarios to further understand his use of tools. Kanzi used certain tools to break logs and others to dig in the ground for food, demonstrating a capacity for understanding that different tools can be applied in various situations. It also brings about an interesting comparison between the abilities of the genus Pan and Homo.

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Roffman, I., Savage-Rumbaugh, S., Rubert-Pugh, E., Ronen, A., Nevo, E. (2012). Stone tool

production and utilization by bonobo-chimpanzees (Pan paniscus). Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences, 109 (36): 14500-14503. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1212855109

Schick, K.D., Toth, N., Garufi, G., Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S., Rumbaugh, D., Sevcik, R. (1999).

Continuing investigations into the stone tool-making and tool-using capabilities of a

bonobo (Pan paniscus). Journal of Archeological Science, 26:821-832. https://doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1998.0350

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Kanzi is a forty-year old male bonobo who currently resides at the Ape Cognition and Conservation Initiative (ACCI) in Des Moines, Iowa.

What makes Kanzi special is his extraordinary linguistic skills compromising of over 3,000 known words as well as his ability to understand more complex verbs and phrases.

Some of these sentence structures include. “Go get the ball that’s in the microwave” and “Put on the monster mask and scare Linda”

Kanzi was raised in a research environment since his birth in 1980 and has been under the study of Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, a psychologist and primatologist who has taught Kanzi since he was nearly two years old.

Kanzi’s abilities started to manifest at an early age of Two when researchers had been teaching Kanzi’s adoptive mother, Matata. After the team had been working with Matata for a couple years, she had only been able to learn about twelve words. Kanzi, who was present during these instructions was seemingly not paying attention and played in the background. It was only until his mother’s absence that Kanzi started using the keyboarded lexigram to produce 120 distinct phrases. Kanzi had been paying attention all along.

In the years to come, his vocabulary would grow and the 256 lexigram keyboard proved to inhabit his ability rather than progress it. Eventually Savage-Rumbaugh would test Kanzi’s ability to understand complex sentence structure such as requests. By Kanzi correctly performing a request such as, “Pour the lemonade in the coke”, it proved an observable level of comprehension.

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In 1972, Duane M. Rumbaugh was conducting research to examine the linguistic capabilities of non-human animals. This study involved 5 chimpanzees, 5 bonobos, and 5 humans. Though the results of this study brought to light new information regarding non-human animals and linguistic capacities, it did not consider language comprehension. As a result, psychologist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh began a comparative study focusing on the language comprehension of a 2-year-old (Alia) human and an 8-year-old bonobo (Kanzi), from 1988-1989.
Kanzi was introduced to language at a young age accidentally through observation of this mother's language training.

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In order to compare language comprehension of both Alia and Kanzi, they were exposed to similar experiences, including a linguistic environment, lexigrams, the same caregiver, and the lack of language training. The test was split into two parts; Non- blind and Blind trials.

Non-Blind Trials
During the non-blind trials, Kanzi and Alia became familiar with test procedure, which in included sitting and listening to the experimenter and doing what was asked. The experimenter in this trial was visible to both Kanzi and Alia and sat across from them. Each subject was asked 1 of 7 different types of questions; (1)Put object in non-transportable/transportable object, (2)show object(s) to someone/ do action to object, (3)do action with object, (4)announce information, (5)take object to location/go to location and get object, (6)make object to an action on object/person, and (7) all other complex sentences

Blind Trials
During the blind-trials, the experimenter was no longer visible to either subject.

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The results of Sue Savage-Rumbaugh's study showed that Kanzi was able to respond correctly to spoken instructions in 72% of all trials and 74% of blind trials, while Alia correctly responded to 66% of all trials and 65% of blind trials.
Kanzi helped reveal that language comprehension could appear spontaneously in non-human animals and that an understanding of grammar and syntax was possible given the proper conditions. This is beneficial in changing the that belief that non-human and human communication was just imitation and furthered our understanding of non-human animal's linguistic capabilities.

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Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S., Murphy, J., Sevcik, R. A., Brakke, K. E., Williams, S. L., Rumbaugh, D. M., & Bates, E. (1993). Language Comprehension in Ape and Child. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 58(3/4). https://doi.org/10.2307/1166068

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Raffaele, Paul. “Speaking Bonobo.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Nov. 2006, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/speaking-bonobo-134931541/.

Stern, Lindsay, and Kevin Miyazaki. “What Can Bonobos Teach Us About the Nature of Language?” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, Aug. 2020, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/bonobos-teach-humans-about-nature-language-180975191/.