Professor Sue Savage-Rumbaugh in a class at the Ape Language Research Centre of Georgia State University with Kanzi and Panbanisha

On concluding my postgraduate study at the University of London, including foundations of biology with Professor David Papineau at King’s College and foundations of psychology with Professor Barry C. Smith at the School of Advanced Study, I flew to the United States to the Language Research Centre at Georgia State University to spend time with the bonobo – or pygmy chimpanzee – Kanzi, and the Professor of Biology and Psychology, Dr Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, studying him.

Enclosed below is the article I wrote about that time as a cover essay for the Financial Times Weekend section in the winter of 2001.First, I want to recount one story not included in that text.

One thing I witnessed at the centre, which has haunted me since, was a video I was shown of two bonobos in one of the laboratory rooms. One bonobo had put a gorilla mask on his head. (The gorilla is a natural enemy of the bonobo. Gorillas are vegetarian, but aggressive nonetheless, especially with competitors over fruit-collection.) He was chasing the other bonobo around the room, who was quite clearly ‘acting’ fear – or rather, overacting. Lest this analysis be doubted, after a minute or so of this, the first bonobo took off his mask and handed it to his friend, who put it on, and so the chase resumed in the opposite direction. Continue reading →