Loulis (born May 10, 1978) is a
chimpanzee
The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...
who has learned to communicate in
American Sign Language
American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that i ...
.
Loulis was named for two caregivers (Louise and Lisa) at the
Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was born. After ten months at Yerkes, Loulis was transferred to Oklahoma with
Roger Fouts
Roger S. Fouts (born June 8, 1943) is a retired American primate researcher. He was co-founder and co-director of the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI) in Washington, and a professor of psychology at the Central Washington Univ ...
and
Washoe, his adoptive mother. In 1980, the family moved to
Central Washington University
Central Washington University (CWU) is a public university in Ellensburg, Washington, United States.
Founded in 1891, the university consists of four divisions: the President's Division, Business and Financial Affairs, Operations, and Academi ...
in
Ellensburg, Washington
Ellensburg is a city in and the county seat of Kittitas County, Washington, United States. It is located just east of the Cascade Range near the junction of Interstate 90 in Washington, Interstate 90 and Interstate 82. The population was 18,666 ...
. By 1993, the
Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI) was built for the family to reside. Loulis's biological mother remained at Yerkes and was used for medical research. In 2013, he moved from the CHCI to the chimpanzee sanctuary of the
Fauna Foundation in Canada.
Language abilities
Washoe and three other chimpanzees (Tatu, Dar, and Moja) were raised as if they were deaf human children and acquired
American Sign Language
American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that i ...
. The chimpanzees regularly use the hand signals to communicate with each other and humans. Loulis is the only chimpanzee in the family who was not cross-fostered (he wasn't raised by humans but rather Washoe and the other chimpanzees).
After eight days with Washoe, Loulis learned his first sign. For the first five years of his life, Loulis's human handlers only used seven signs around him (the signs used were ''who'', ''which'', ''want'', ''where'', ''name'', ''that'', and ''sign''). Loulis was able to acquire what he learned of ASL from Washoe.
The details of this research can be found in ''Teaching Sign Language to Chimpanzees'', edited by R. Allen Gardner,
Beatrix T. Gardner, and Thomas E. Van Cantfort, State University of
New York Press, Albany, 1989.
See also
*
Great ape language
Great ape language research historically involved attempts to teach chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans to communicate using imitative human speech, sign language, physical tokens and computerized lexigrams. These studies were con ...
*
List of individual apes
This is a list of non-human apes of encyclopedic interest. It includes individual chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, bonobos, and gibbons that are in some way famous or notable.
Actors
* J. Fred Muggs (a chimpanzee born 1952) was a "co-host" ...
References
External links
Homepage of the Friends of Washoe
Individual chimpanzees
Individual apes involved in language studies
Animal intelligence
Primatology
1978 animal births
Sign language
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