This doesn't really relate to raw food, but animal lovers will find
this
article fascinating.

Mark
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Scientists teach chimpanzee to speak English
by Jonathan Leake, Science Editor

RESEARCHERS have for the first time taught apes how to speak. Two
animals, a
pygmy chimp and an orang-utan, have been able to hold conversations
with
humans.
The chimp, called Panbanisha, has a vocabulary of 3,000 words and
talks
through a computer that produces a synthetic voice as she presses
symbols on
a keyboard.

She now speaks constantly, constructing sentences ranging from,
"Please can
I have an iced coffee" to discussing videos she has watched with the
scientists who look after her at Georgia State University's language
research centre in Atlanta.

The 20-year-old orang-utan, called Chantek, is a few miles away at
Atlanta
zoo where it, too, is learning to use a voice synthesiser - a skill it
is
expected to master quickly, since it already has a 2,000-word
vocabulary in
sign language.

Among its first spoken words, delivered Stephen Hawking-style, was the
request to keepers: "Please buy me a hamburger." Recently it saved
money
paid to it in return for carrying out tasks and building artefacts,
then
told scientists in sign language: "I want to buy a pool," because a
heatwave
was making life in the cage too uncomfortable.

The animals use a specially designed keypad with about 400 keys, each
bearing a symbol. Some symbols have simple meanings such as "apple";
others
represent more abstract concepts such as "give me", "good", "bad" or
"help".

The animals have to learn all the symbols and then construct sentences
by
pressing keys in the right order. The computer speaks the words and
flashes
them up on a screen. Recently Panbanisha, 14, has started writing
words on
the floor using chalk - apparently learning letters from the computer
screens.

Duane Rumbaugh, the university's professor of psychology and biology,
who is
director of the centre, said tests suggested the animals had the
language
and cognitive skills of a four-year-old child.

Panbanisha has gone further than just learning to speak and read. She
is
teaching the same skills to her one-year-old son Nyota, who has
developed a
vocabulary similar to that of a one-year-old child. He cannot create
sentences yet, but his early start means he may soon outstrip his
mother.
Apes could soon be talking to each other and language skills could be
passed
from one generation to the next.

Panbanisha's mother, Matata, cannot use the keyboard, so she tells
Panbanisha, who then communicates her mother's needs, such as: "Matata
wants
a banana."

When the apes look reflective, they may be asked what is wrong.
Sometimes
they just reply: "I'm thinking about eating something," or "I want to
go to
Campers Cavern" (a location in their 55-acre site).

Now Rumbaugh has been given a US government grant for a project to see
if
great apes can be given the power of true speech.

Until recently it had been thought they would never speak because
their
voice boxes could not produce the range of sounds used by humans.

Then researchers noticed that some animals were successfully copying
human
words and phrases. The sounds were distorted, but recognisable. A
spokesman
for the centre said: "Over time our opinions of apes could change and
one
day we may have to extend them human rights. Who knows, soon
Panbanisha may
voice an opinion on that."

Next page: Morocco mourns its ruthless king

So pleased to meet you - the talking chimp

Next: Morocco mourns its ruthless king

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