Amazing Animals:
PRIMATE COMMUNICATION • Vervets are small monkeys that live in small social groups and communicate by grunting. For years people thought their series of grunts were merely a way of keeping track of where each member of the troop was located. But then two researchers in Kenya began to record the grunts while at the same time videotaping the vervets. Their analysis of the monkeys’ grunting revealed some surprising things. • The vervets have three alarm calls signaling the presence of predators. One signifies eagle; one means leopard; and one designates snake. These three different calls were recorded and then played back to the monkeys on hidden loudspeakers. When the call for eagle was played, every monkey looked to the sky. When the cry for the leopard was played, they looked to the ground. When the warning for snake was played, they looked to the trees. • Next, the researchers studied the grunts vervets made when meeting other members of the group. They found the grunt a vervet makes when meeting a socially superior monkey is different from the grunt it makes when meeting an inferior. There is a different grunt altogether for a monkey from a different tribe. Researchers also isolated the grunt that means a monkey is moving into an open area. • They played a practical joke on one vervet by occasionally playing that monkey's "Stranger!" call on the loudspeakers when no stranger was present. The other members soon learned the monkey was unreliable because he was always "crying wolf." They soon learned to ignore him, not only when he legitimately gave his "stranger" call, but also whenever he gave his other calls.
• In an experiment in 1962, researchers recorded the sounds a group of baboons made in the wild while storm clouds were gathering. Later the tape was played to a group of captive apes in a zoo. Even though the day was perfectly clear, the apes rushed to shelter as if a storm had been imminent. • Washoe, a chimp at the University of Nevada, learned about 350 words using American Sign Language. She was able to use these words to make up her own terms, such as "drink-fruit" for watermelon; "water-bird" for swan; "white-tiger" for zebra; and "food-drink" for refrigerator. She even taught her adopted chimp son some sign language before she died at the age of 42 in 2007. • Koko, a gorilla taught to use sign language, learned 645 signs by the time she was seven years old and now knows over 1,000 signs. She can also understand about 2,000 words of spoken language. Like Washoe, Koko is also capable of making up her own signs for things she does not know the word for. She made the signs for "finger" and "bracelet" indicating a ring. • A bonobo (pygmy chimpanzee) named Kanzi was being trained to communicate in a lab by using a computer and typing in symbols. Kanzi was shown videos of Koko the gorilla using sign language. Kanzi’s handler was surprised when Kanzi began using sign language after viewing the videos in spite of the fact that sign language had not been part of the curriculum. • An ape named Chantek was learning sign language when his handler gave him a bunch of grapes and indicated that she wanted the ape to share them with her. Chantek ate all the grapes, and handed the empty stem back to his handler.
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Weekly SUDOKU
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King CROSSWORD
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