Chimpanzees are incredible creatures. As one of our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, learning more about them can help teach us more about our past.
While chimps are very intelligent, most scientists agree that they do not have the capacity to speak using words like people do.
Decades ago, there was research performed on chips where they were raised by families with other children. The hope was if a chimp was raised like a child, they would learn to speak like a child.
This research has been widely criticized as being unethical, and while those performing the study suggested that the chimps did learn to say some basic words, that had long been disputed.
More recently, however, the videos from the original research has been looked at and analyzed more closely. The results of this research were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
The researchers found that it is more likely than previously thought that the chimps did have at least some ability to speak.
In the study, it was said:
“Our findings demonstrate that in the absence of direct data-driven examination, great ape vocal production capacities have been underestimated.”
One of the most convincing examples from the videos is a chimp named Johnny who is shown to say, “mama” multiple times.
The researchers took the audio of this chimp and had people listen to it (along with humans saying words) and have them identify what words (if any) they heard. The people in the study overwhelmingly said that they heard the chimp say mama. These people did not know that the audio came from a chimp.
Cognitive scientist Julia Fischer disputes that this means the chimps are actually talking in a way comparable to humans. In an interview with the New York Times, she said:
What the apes are doing vocally has nothing to do with human speech.” She went on to say, “pant-grunts together and were rewarded for doing so.”
Michel Belyk, a psychologist at Edge Hil University in the UK disagrees. He commented:
“Humanity, despite all its particularities, did not spring up from under a rock, but was molded by evolution from the clay of our primate ancestors.”
While the debate rages on, there is no doubt that these chimps are impressive.
Take a look at the video and see for yourself.
Whether this chimp was talking or not, it sounded scary.
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