The Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, is home to seven bonobos -- a close relative of the chimpanzee -- and three orangutans. But if you think Iowa might be a strange place for them to live, don't say it out loud … these apes understand English. You can talk to the apes, and they know what you are saying.The residents of the Great Ape Trust are part of groundbreaking language research where the apes are being taught to communicate with humans by pressing 350 lexigrams -- symbols that appear on a screen and represent thoughts and objects.The superstar is 26-year-old Kanzi, whom Bill Fields has been working with for years. To communicate, Fields speaks to Kanzi, who then points to the lexigrams to respond and demonstrate a level of understanding. "Qualitatively, there is no difference between Kanzi's language and my language," Fields said. "It's a matter of degree." The key to ensuring they grasp the language, the researchers said, is to start teaching them when they are young, just like you would with human babies. "Language is culturally acquired. Its not learned," said Fields. "It's acquired in the immediate postnatal antogyny of the organisms life. The only organism capable of learning language are babies."

They've been communicating with bonobos through the keyboard for almost three years, relying on a technique developed in 1971 and also used at the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University and other facilities. At the Great Ape Trust, researchers said the apes would likely never be able to vocalize words like humans; they are limited by the range of their vocal chords among other things. However, Fields swears he has heard Kanzi try to say "thank you."

View: Full Article | Source: ABC News

I wonder if our Simian friends in Iowa have a phrase button in their lexicon that they can push to communicate with their keepers to "LET ME THE HELL OUT OF THIS CAGE!"...the article never says.

O-

Better yet, what do they think of Humans???? we are very close cousins, and seems they have ability to reason, think, they can learn our languages and technologies to a point, they have emotions and just how do they feel about their human cousins? I know bonobo's are 98% human, and chimps not far off that, either...Maybe they have a solution to man's problems if man would listen???? JMO... they do know....
afterall, we as man listen to our family relatives in times of need....well, they are family to an extent...

just for info, I remember a woman here in my hometown that had a chimp as a "pet". that chimp looked and acted just like an 8 year old kid....very friendly and always wanting ice cream, pop and to be talked to....she always dressed him and he acted just like a kid at that age... he loved watching tv and baseball :

apes are cool...

Teach them the Bible or God and see what happens.

that one had to be a howler...no common sense...just vocal without reason....

What is weird is man always talks about what apes can do....maybe it is time for apes to tell what man can do?
I really think that apes can and do understand man...but they lack the ability to translate to man, the knowledge they posess.
I have seen on tv, what chimps can do and how they interact with each other...they are human in many regards..
so maybe it is time to give these beings a chance to speak their minds?
remember, man is not the only intellegent species on this planet..chimps and bonobo's are too.
If a chimp could speak...what would they tell us?

Hopefully nothing along the lines of "The Planet of the Apes starts now!!!" type deal.

No Planet of the Apes here, a great movie, but I think man needs to listen to chimps and bonobo's and hear what they have to say...We might be surprised...They know, but can't speak....they are man's cousins and are very intellegent. Most understand sign language and can speak through it. Just remember, they can understand man's technologies...and use them to communicate.

Most do not understand sign language. A few can be taught, but it is association not true thought.

Yes, most can understand sign language. they can communicate their wants and needs through it. You are wrong. it is not by association. it is because they have
learned how to communicate...

Nevermind.

So they understand it without being taught. Wow. Humans even need help with that.

Also, are you having many conversations with the monkeys. No. I thought not.

Conversations? Ya, everyday.....

No, I had a neighbor who had one, and it was just like a human child to a point...watched everything you did and tried to mimic it. They can learn on their own...

Mannnnn I wana pet chimp too

He always wore kids clothes and loved baseball...he could throw "not too good" but he would throw the ball back in a game of catch...and he would grin when he caught it....and laugh....just like a kid...