Do chimps ‘talk’ with their hands?

ABOUT 50 YEARS AGO, RESEARCHERS Beatrix and Alan Gardner taught a young female chimp called Washoe how to sign using American sign language.

- Helen Pilcher

They raised her like one of their own. They dressed her, played with her, ate at the table with her and took her for rides in the family car. They communicated exclusively with her in sign language and, pretty quickly, Washoe began to sign back.

By the time she was five, she had learned about 350 signs. Her fingers were dextrous and fast, and often she would combine signs together to make new meanings. When she saw a swan for the first time, Washoe made the signs for ‘water’ and ‘bird’.

Similar projects followed, with mixed results. When chimps were treated less like family, and more like test subjects, they did less well. Chimps, it turns out, need a stable family environment if they are to learn to communicate well - just as we do. Then the researchers moved on and many of the chimps were rehomed in sanctuaries, where things took a turn for the worse. After spending so much time with their human teachers, the apes found it hard to adjust to living with their own kind. Washoe signed her displeasure. She referred to her new chimp neighbours as ‘black bugs’.