Des Moines’ Ape Initiative, as well as scientists and animal lovers around the world, are mourning the loss of Kanzi, the bonobo who became famous for his trail-blazing language abilities.
Kanzi was born in captivity and was part of a language project his entire life. He is believed to be the first nonhuman great ape to understand spoken English, and he could communicate using more than 300 symbols on a lexigram that allowed him to create sentences. He died March 18 at the age of 44, leaving behind a legacy of significant research, as well as deep friendships across species.
Like many people, Sara Skiba didn’t know much about bonobos before she learned about Kanzi. She first read about him in a textbook in an undergraduate animal behavior class. Years later, Skiba eventually worked with him as a research scientist and director of communications at the Ape Initiative, a research center that studies bonobos and promotes conservation.
“He was a really social individual in general. He loved interacting with his other bonobo family members. He loved when we would have visitors or school groups, getting to play chase with young children,” Skiba said. “He just was so full of joy, and I think that when you have a tool to be able to communicate with the humans like Kanzi did, it was almost this kind of new lease on life, to be able to express his wants and desires and to really have your caregivers listen.”
He was able to request foods or activities and have those requests met.
“It was really something unlike any other type of conversation or interaction you would have with a nonhuman animal,” Skiba said.
Kanzi's impressive language skills and his charismatic personality made it easy for humans to relate to him and also illustrated how similar humans are to other animals.
The bonobo is a type of ape that shares 98.7% of its DNA with humans. Bonobos and chimps are humans' closest relatives. Additionally, humans – not other primates like gorillas or orangutans – are the closest relatives to bonobos and chimps.
“That's what Kanzi really showed us, that bonobos are so much like humans that they really don't fit in the human or the animal category,” Skiba said.
Though they are grieving the loss of this beloved individual, the mission of the Ape Initiative remains the same – to provide care to bonobos while sharing research with the world.
“The six [bonobos] that we have at Ape Initiative are all very unique, very intelligent. Teco ... who was the only bonobo born in the state of Iowa, he has beaten the Ender Dragon in Minecraft. He has a following of young students across the globe that cheer him on. He's only going to be 15 years old this year, and so we're really focused on providing decades of exemplary care to Teco and his bonobo family members and continuing to learn as much as we can about bonobos, because we really think that that's the key to conserving this species in the wild.”
Outside of captivity, bonobos are only found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where they are endangered, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
Ape Initiative is still waiting to learn more about Kanzi’s cause of death, though 44 is elderly for an ape in captivity.
“What was so shocking to us is even up until his last day, Kanzi was so young at heart and full of life. He really had so much playful energy,” Skiba said.
She said she wanted to thank Kanzi not only for his scientific contributions, but for being a friend.
“We hope that Kanzi's legacy will continue to live on. He will continue to be published in studies. He will continue to have positive impacts on the lives of the bonobos that he helped raise and helped really make into individuals,” Skiba said. “And he will continue to inspire people to care about bonobos.”
To hear this conversation listen to Talk of Iowa, hosted by Charity Nebbe. Caitlin Troutman produced this episode.
