English 101 for bonobos

Panbanisha wants coffee – a tall decaf Starbucks caramel macchiato, to be exact. Midway through a demonstration of her extensive vocabulary, obligingly pointing to the correct symbols on a complex board for "yogurt," "egg," and "hurt," she switches gears and points to the symbols for "candy" and "coffee" – her term for a caramel macchiato.

"You want coffee, Panbanisha?" asks William Fields, a senior researcher at Des Moines's Great Ape Trust – a question that Panbanisha responds to with an enthusiastic series of loud shrieks. A few more exchanges, and she's made sure he knows to get enough for the other six apes, to get "marshmallow" – her word for the foam on top – and to get the drinks now!

Panbanisha is a bonobo – one of the four great ape species, also sometimes called a pygmy chimpanzee, and one of the most humanlike. She is on the cutting edge of research that's revealing a surprising amount about how bonobos learn – and how similar to their human cousins they really are.

The exploration into one of the most fascinating dimensions of the animal kingdom is taking place in a new state-of-the-art research facility on the edge of this Midwestern city. Here, in a massive concrete-and-glass structure, scientists are watching how the bonobos interact as they live in conditions not unlike suburban America.

The primates, for instance, enjoy an enviable view of the lake and forest that surround the center, which they often get to explore when the weather cooperates. Inside, they have climbing towers and a splashing pool with a waterfall they can turn on themselves. When visitors come, the bonobos decide whether or not to let them into the special visiting room, where they can exchange food or other items from vending machines. They can watch videos – favorites include gorilla films and (does this sound familiar?) movies of themselves. They leaf through books and magazines. The bonobos seem to have everything but TiVo and a Toyota Camry in the driveway.

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At the center of the research here is language. The work at the Great Ape Trust grew out of a project begun more than 20 years ago in which researchers tried to use symbols – called lexigrams – to communicate with bonobos in a new way. They wanted to avoid criticisms of past language research, such as the possibility that apes were just responding to nonverbal signals.

They had little success with Matata, an older bonobo born in the wild. But when she was away from the research station one day, scientists discovered that her young son, Kanzi, had learned a dozen of the lexigram symbols – like "banana," "peanuts," "bite," and "tickle" – without any actual instruction, simply by being nearby. Today, Kanzi knows more than 360 lexigrams and understands several thousand spoken words of English.

"The only organisms capable of learning language are babies," says Mr. Fields, who has been with the project almost since the beginning.

The mistake other research has made, he says, is trying to teach apes words the same way they would a second language – almost like a Berlitz class for animals. What's needed is to pick it up as a first language like humans do – by constant exposure to it at a young age, as a part of their everyday culture.

Most of the study has taken place at the Language Research Center at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Today, Kanzi and his sister, Panbanisha, along with Matata and four other bonobos, have moved to their new home at the Great Ape Trust here, where researchers hope the comfortable surroundings will help the primates develop and express themselves.

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