Voice control in orangutan gives clues to early human speech

Dr Adriano Lameira of the Department of Anthropology at Durham University has led research into whether the human ability to speak could have stemmed from our evolutionary ancestors the great apes. Here, Rocky, an eleven-year-old orangutan living at Indianapolis Zoo takes part in a game showing his can learn new sounds and control the tone and pitch of his voice. These skills could suggest that humans’ ability to speak can be traced back to the great apes.