A photo from open sources
Africans, millennia living side by side with monkeys, believe that they are much smarter than it is customary to think about them. They just mow under the fools, so that people do not force them to work. Maybe worth to listen to the opinion of the inhabitants of the Black continent? Cause they know monkeys are much better than Europeans.
A quick-witted monkey, but not a speaking one
A photo from open sources
The presence of intelligence in a monkey has never been disputed. Primates not only use improvised items for food, but also they themselves make simple tools from sticks and stones. Gorillas and chimpanzees understand humans much better than cats and dogs. Seemed one step is left before communicating with monkeys, you just need to train their language of people.
Attempts to teach primates to speak have been made for a long time. And they were all unsuccessful. Alas, the monkeys will not speak never. Millions of years ago, humans mutated the muscles of the tongue and larynx, in a monkey – no. Distinguishing sounds and understanding meaning heard words, they cannot reproduce them physically. But this doesn’t mean at all that human communication with a monkey is impossible in principle.
In human society there are a huge number of people deprived the possibilities of verbal communication are deaf and dumb. For communication, they use sign language. Attempts to teach primates the language of the deaf were much more successful. A dialogue began between a man and a monkey.
Polite Chimpanzee Washo
A photo from open sources
Born in September 1967, a female chimpanzee Washo from the first day life was among people communicating in sign language. Watching after people and during training, Washo learned about 350 gesture words, 170 of which I used very actively. First associative word in her vocabulary was “open.” She asked to open not only the front door to the room, but also the refrigerator door and even water tap. Actively and to the place she used “sorry” and “you are welcome”. From a stock of gestures, she by combining them “invented” new words. So seeing her floating duck, for her designations combined two gestures “water” and “bird”.
Once, upon seeing a plane flying, she asked a caregiver ride her on it. Among scientists, this message had an effect. the explosion: how she was able to realize that this is not a bird, but a technical product to ride on?
Savvy Coco
A photo from open sources
The female gorilla Coco mastered more than 1,000 characters. She also combined gestures if not enough vocabulary. Seen Coco called the zebra “white tiger”, to denote the mask amounted to original phrase “hat on the eyes.” Coco, like Washo, it turned out to be quite affordable to create associative relations, which is always It was considered the prerogative of the exclusively human brain. And so Of course, no one taught Coco to swear.
Foul Coco
It turned out that in the Coco consciousness there are derogatory ones, abusive concepts that she expressed to her sign language. Teacher reprimanded her unfairly offended Coco called a bird in response, stubbornly repeating this repeatedly. In the understanding of the gorilla, a bird is a creature of the lower order. Calling a person a bird in the concept of a gorilla is like use us as an insult “dog”, “pig” or “goat”. Tearing up Coco’s gorilla Michael’s favorite doll irate Coco, humanly, called a “dirty stinking toilet.”
Rise of monkeys does not threaten the Earth
Washo and Coco are not the only language-trained monkeys gestures. Around the world, dozens of primates already communicate with man that way. The established contact allowed a glimpse into the world of our smaller brothers. It turned out that kindness is available to them, empathy, compassion, altruism, resentment and humor. IQ individual individuals reaches 75-95 (a person with an IQ of 100 is no longer considered mentally retarded).
At the same time, in their development, monkeys never rise above level of 2-3 year old children. That’s enough to count them almost equal to us. But the “planet of the apes” the Earth will not.
Birds
