Washoe the “talking” chimp, dies

Washoe communicated with sign language

Washoe, the world-famous chimpanzee who communicated using human sign language, died on 30th October 2007, aged 42. She had been living at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI) in the USA since 1980, with three other chimps, in a purpose-built and welfare-orientated university-based complex.

Washoe was born wild, in West Africa, around 1965, but was captured by the U.S. Air Force and taken to America for research use in the NASA space programme. In 1966, she was taken to Washoe County, Nevada, by two scientists, Allen and Beatrix Gardner. The Gardners were leading a project to teach a chimpanzee American Sign Language (ASL). Previous efforts to teach chimps spoken languages had failed, but Washoe started to pick up ASL straight away and her fame quickly spread.

Her most recent carers, Roger and Deborah Fouts, co-founders of the Chimpanzee and Human Communications Institute, and friends of PACE, were with her at her death. They became involved with Washoe after the Gardeners’ project ended and have continued to communicate with her and care for her ever since.

Washoe had a vocabulary of about 250 words when she died. She had also taught sign language to three younger chimps at the institute, without human intervention, marking the first animal-to-animal transfer of a human language, according to Deborah Fouts. She says that the chimpanzees were able to converse among themselves about feeling happy or sad, and could discuss objects that weren’t in the room. She said Washoe was continuing to communicate on the day of her death. "She was not feeling well. I came up to her to give her a drink. She lifted her head and greeted me with a pant-hoot (a soft sound that chimpanzees make). She's always been a polite, cheerful person."

"Our project marked some big scientific steps forward," continued Fouts. "It means we have to learn to share the planet."

In reality, Washoe was a tragic ambassador. She taught the world just how incredibly intelligent chimps can be, but she herself suffered from the confines of captivity until her dying day as a result.

Ultimately, the Fouts’ work with Washoe and other chimps forced them to realize that they were dealing with ‘persons’, not mere animals and that experiments on apes were not ethical, whatever the objective. “We are abolitionists now”, said Deborah. “You can never replace the real home of a chimp, the wilds of Africa, where they should live with their families.” Since their realization that chimps were ‘persons’ rather than animals or things, the Fouts’ have been very active in their native U.S. within the chimpanzee protection world, lobbying against their use in experimentation, advertising, entertainment and any industry in which they suffer.

News 07 index