CAST OF CHARACTERS HUMAN ADULTS Madame Abreu. Resident of Cuba who maintained a colony of chimpanzees; Gua, the Kellogg's chimp, was born in her colony on November 15,1930. She was later transferred to the Anthropoid Experiment Station of Yale University at Orange Park, Florida. Robert Yerkes allowed the Kelloggs to take Gua on June 26, 1931. Elizabeth Bates. Linguist specializing in children's language acquisition; she is sympathetic and helpful to researchers in animal language. Sarah Boysen (1949-). An early associate of Duane Rumbaugh and Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, she now directs a large chimpanzee project (11 animals) at Ohio State University, and has obtained fascinating data on chimpanzees' abil­ ity to count. They can choose the smaller of two Arabic numerals in order to get a larger portion, but when the concrete food objects are presented, the ani­ mals cannot resist choosing the larger portion, and hence receive the smaller. Roger Brown (1925-1997). Student of child language; emphasized differ­ ences between child and chimpanzee acquisition of language. Janis Carter (19??-). A student at the University of Oklahoma, she became caretaker of the Temerlins' chimpanzee Lucy, and spent harrowing years trying to reintroduce Lucy to the wild in The Gambia. Noam Chomsky (1928-). Famous linguist, proponent of linguistic theory involving innate language acquisition devices, and of a transformational gram­ mar that expresses the "deep structure" of thought in the "surface structure" of language, and vice versa; he minimizes both ape language ability and the significance of language research with apes. Ronald Cohn (1943-). An electron microscopist and recombinant DNA specialist, he is a long-time companion of Penny Patterson and the gorillas Koko, Michael, and Ndume. 281 282 Cast of Characters Michael Crichton. Author of Congo, a novel in which a gorilla trained in sign language serves as an interpreter of the language of a band of renegade gorillas to an expedition of humans. The possibility of such interpretation had been suggested semi-seriously by Duane Rumbaugh many years ago. Deborah Fouts (1943-). Currently at Central Washington University, she is a language researcher and co-keeper (with husband, Roger Fouts) of four chimpanzees: Washoe, her adopted son, Loulis, Tatu, and Dar. Roger Fouts (1943-). Also at Central Washington University, he is a lan­ guage researcher and co-keeper (with Deborah Fouts) of the four chimpanzees. He was a student of the Gardners at Reno, and was later at Oldahoma University and the Institute for Primate Studies directed by William Lemmon before moving to Washington. According to Eugene Linden, Fouts left liter­ ally in the dead of night, perhaps because of a controversy about whether Washoe belonged to Fouts or to Lemmon. William Henry Furness 3rd (1866-1920). Furness was a physician/ surgeon who tried, beginning in 1909, to train orangutans to speak; one learned to say "Papa" and "cup," and apparently understood that the former was to be used as Furness's name. The female orang also learned to say "th"; Furness intended to use this sound as the basis for "the," "this," and "that," but his student died before his plan could be completed. Another orangutan "refused to be educated." Allen Gardner (1930-). Psychologist, Ph.D. from Northwestern University. With his wife Beatrix, Dr. Gardner made the first known systematic effort to teach sign language to a chimpanzee. Their first student was Washoe, who mastered 132 signs to the conservative criterion used by the Gardners. Other chimps they studied later (Moja, Tatu, and Dar) showed similar competence. Beatrix Gardner (1933-1995). Beatrix trained as an ethologist at Oxford under Niko Tinbergen. With her husband Allen, she made the first known systematic effort to teach sign language to a chimpanzee. She died suddenly on June 5, 1995 during a triumphal tour ofItaly with Allen. Robert Solso in her obituary reports an unbelievably poignant irony; near the end, her jaws were locked by the septicemic organism that killed her, and she conveyed her last thoughts to Allen in American Sign Language, which she likely would not have known except for the Washoe work. Human Adults 283 Richard Lynch Garner (1848-1920). In the summer of 1893, Garner spent 112 days in a cage in Gabon so that he would be protected while study­ ing chimpanzees and gorillas in their native habitat. Garner may have been the first person to teach a chimpanzee to vocalize a word; he claimed that his chimpanzee, Moses, spoke a good rendition of the French word, feu, which is translated in English as "fire," and inferior versions of the German "wie" (how) and the nearly universal "mama," for which he made the lip movements but not the sound. Jane Goodall (1934- ). Jane Goodall is the best-known observer of chimpanzees in the wild, and is the author of many books and articles. She has followed the chimps in Gombe Stream Reserve for about 30 years, and is a committed and highly effective protector of primates. Catherine Hayes. Viki's "mama" is the author of The Ape in our House, which describes adventures with Viki in an unpretentious and popular style. She is chided by Candland (1993) for losing scientific perspective, but the present authors cannot find fault with anyone who suffered through the life and death of a young chimpanzee. Keith Hayes (1921-). Viki's "papa," who with Cathy Hayes raised Viki in an environment as nearly like that of a human child as possible, from near birth until Viki died of encephalitis at the age of seven. Louis Herman (1930-). Herman is a marine mammal expert whose Ph.D. is from Penn State, now at the University of Hawaii. He has taught dolphins to respond to visual or vocal signs, and believes that they are responding to syntactical relationships. Maria Hoyt. Mrs. Hoyt was obviously an upper crust woman of the depres­ sion whose husband retired upon their marriage, and who could afford to buy and maintain a gorilla and adapt her life style to that of the gorilla (named Toto). Although Toto was not given special training, Ms. Hoyt claimed that Toto understood as much Spanish as did a child of the same age. Toto, however, was not tested systematically. Louise Kellogg. She was the wife and colleague of Winthrop Kellogg, mother of their child Donald, and adoptive mother for 9 months of the chimpanzee Gua. 284 Cast of Characters Winthrop Kellogg (1898-1972). Kellogg was a psychologist from Indiana University who observed his child Donald being reared for 9 months with the chimpanzee Gua, and reported (with his wife, Louise) the results in a book and other publications. Shigeru Kiritani (19??-19??). Kiritani is a contemporary Japanese scientist who publishes on the hearing and vocalizations of chimpanzees. Nadesha Kohts (189? -19??). Kohts was a Russian woman who compared the development of a chimpanzee, J oni, during the years 1913-1916 with that of her son, Roody, during the years 1925-1929. Shozo Kojima (19??-19??). Kojima is a contemporary Japanese scientist who publishes on the hearing and vocalizations of chimpanzees. Karl Krall (1861-19??). Krall was a horse trainer who took over ownership of Clever Hans II from Herr von Osten, and trained Muhamed and Zarif in similar performances. William Lemmon (1916-1986). Lemmon's Ph.D. in clinical psychology was from Ohio State University. He headed the Institute for Primate Research at the University of Oklahoma. He was a large, bald man with an unusual ability to dom­ inate chimpanzees, and, if Linden, Temerlin, and Roger Fouts can be believed, even humans. He feuded with Roger Fouts over the treatment of chimpanzees. Philip Lieberman (1934-). Leiberman is a, perhaps the, leading expert on vocal tract analysis. He has published extensively on the comparative analysis of the vocal tracts of chimpanzees, Neanderthals, and modern humans. His computer analyses indicate that chimpanzee vocal tracts could produce many, but not all, of the sounds of human language, enough, at any event, to sup­ port a complex language. His analyses indicate that much of the difficulty with teaching chimpanzees vocal language lies in neural and/or muscular factors rather than solely in the anatomy of the vocal tract. John Lilly (1915-2001). In the 1960s Lilly made extravagant claims about dolphins' ability to understand and produce human language. His claims are generally viewed with skepticism, and he acknowledged that he was unable to communicate directly with the dolphins. Schusterman prefers to explain the dolphins' and seals' performances in terms of conditional discriminations and/or simple rule-following rather than in terms of linguistic ability. Human Adults 285 Eugene Linden. Linden is the author of several books on ape language. His books are based on personal contact with several of the researchers. Hugh Lofting (1886-1948). Lofting was an English author and illustrator; he wrote the story of Dr. Dolittle, the fictional character who could talk to animals. James Mahoney (19??-). Mahoney is a veterinarian and was Associate Director of the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP). He is respected by those on both sides of the animal rights controversy, and is sympathetic to the plight of the chimpanzees in his care, some of whom were trained in sign language. Julien Offray de la Mettrie (1709-1751). La Mettrie was a French philoso­ pher who suggested that apes should be able to learn a vocal or sign language. Lyn Miles (1944- ). Dr. Miles taught Chantek, an orangutan, "pidgin sign," beginning in 1978. Jan Moor-Jankowski. Dr. Moor-Jankowski was Director of the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery (LEMSIP) from 1965-1995. He is highly principled and sees both sides of animal rights issues.