Great Ape Trust scientist: "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" Will Change Perceptions

An internationally acclaimed scientist at Great Ape Trust said the new film Rise of the Planet of the Apes, will change our perception of nonhuman primates and their relationship to us. Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh works with bonobos at a research facility in Des Moines, Iowa that studies culture, language, tools and intelligence.  She spoke about the latest of the Planet of the Apes films as a guest on National Public Radio’s On Point program.

“I think the movie is going to radically change the current mythology of how we view the human/ape divide,” Savage-Rumbaugh told NPR's Tom Ashbrook. “In the previous films, we were rooting for the people. Now we’re rooting for the apes and that’s a huge turnaround that’s been accomplished by this movie.  The apes are the good guys.”

Savage-Rumbaugh said apes are so intriguing to humans that we can’t stop looking at them – which is one of the reasons they are so powerful in the movie.  She added that Rise of the Planet of the Apes elevates the basic understanding you get from watching an ape.

“It’s elevated to a point where the human is willing and almost eager to look through the eyes and feelings of an ape, therefore it begins to humanize apes instead of demonizing them,” Savage-Rumbaugh said. “This is not only powerful but it has direct, real relationships to the scientific data that has been collected and actually supports what you see in the movie.”

Beginning in the early 1980s, Savage-Rumbaugh pioneered language research with bonobos, including the world famous Kanzi, at Georgia State University’s Language Research Center. In 2005, the program moved to Great Ape Trust where Savage-Rumbaugh is now conducting research with a third generation bonobo named Teco.

Earlier this year, Savage-Rumbaugh was recognized as one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.