The teaching of sign language is interesting… have adult chimps taught each other sign language?
I’m not sure, but I know Kanzi, a Bonobo, is claimed to have picked it up from video of Koko the Gorilla (he was not ever trained to sign, but began quoting some of her signs verbatim. He normally communicates with lexigrams; it’s been discovered that he’s vocalizing, albeit at much too high a pitch but with approximate articulation, the English word he hears whenever he selects a lexigram. Chantek, an orangutan (who has had several outside observors interview him, and was raised-as-human basically full time like Washoe) has not taught his current, non-signing female roommate what he knows, and it has been attested that he seems to consider his use of sign something unique; he refers to himself as an “orangutan-person”, while roomie is just an “orangutan” and his handler is “person.”
(Randomly, I’m also reminded—though I can’t track down which ape this was at the moment, will poke it later—of an experiment with one well-socialized chimp who, faced with a “pictures of humans, pictures of chimps, here’s your picture, where does it go?” puzzle insistently placed his picture with the humans, and seemed rather upset to be corrected. This may’ve been Kanzi, so substitute bonobo in that case...)
I’m not sure, but I know Kanzi, a Bonobo, is claimed to have picked it up from video of Koko the Gorilla (he was not ever trained to sign, but began quoting some of her signs verbatim. He normally communicates with lexigrams; it’s been discovered that he’s vocalizing, albeit at much too high a pitch but with approximate articulation, the English word he hears whenever he selects a lexigram. Chantek, an orangutan (who has had several outside observors interview him, and was raised-as-human basically full time like Washoe) has not taught his current, non-signing female roommate what he knows, and it has been attested that he seems to consider his use of sign something unique; he refers to himself as an “orangutan-person”, while roomie is just an “orangutan” and his handler is “person.”
(Randomly, I’m also reminded—though I can’t track down which ape this was at the moment, will poke it later—of an experiment with one well-socialized chimp who, faced with a “pictures of humans, pictures of chimps, here’s your picture, where does it go?” puzzle insistently placed his picture with the humans, and seemed rather upset to be corrected. This may’ve been Kanzi, so substitute bonobo in that case...)
I imagine that that chimp (or bonobo), if presented with a copy of Tarzan, and if able to read, would immediately identify with the hero.