 Des Moines, Iowa – April 30, 2007 – A leading expert on great ape intelligence and behavior is urging significant change in the care and welfare of captive apes. In a scientific article published today in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science (JAAWS), Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh of Great Ape Trust of Iowa cites a need to address great ape welfare well beyond accommodations, physical needs and enrichment.
“Efforts to improve captive welfare in apes have focused upon the need for social companions, adequate cage space, fresh fruits and vegetables, variety in the diet, and some type of ‘enrichment,’” wrote Savage-Rumbaugh. “While these enriched environments have surely provided for an overall improvement in the lives of captive apes, they have thus far failed to take into account the kinds of sociological, psychological and cultural factors that are central to the adequate functioning of ape social groups, and/or to the individual psyche expression in non-captive settings.”
Savage-Rumbaugh is a lead scientist and director of bonobo field research at Great Ape Trust, a research facility in Des Moines, IA dedicated to the study of ape culture, behavior, intelligence and language. She presented her paper, “Welfare of Apes in Captive Environments: Comments on, and by, a specific group of apes” at the Animal Behavior Society’s (ABS) annual conference in Snowbird, UT.
“The way we perceive apes determines how we treat them. The way we treat them determines what they become. What they become determines how we treat them,” added Savage-Rumbaugh. “Unless the cycle is broken, the relationship between ourselves as human beings and apes – as something strange, exotic, beastly, alluring and yet repugnant, will continue unabated.”
Savage-Rumbaugh was the first scientist to conduct language research with bonobos. She joined Great Ape Trust following a 23-year association with Georgia State University's Language Research Center (LRC). At the LRC, Savage-Rumbaugh helped pioneer the use of a number of new technologies for working with primates. These include a keyboard which provides for speech synthesis, allowing the animals to communicate using spoken English, and a "primate friendly" computer-based joystick terminal that permits the automated presentation of many different computerized tasks. Information developed at the center regarding the abilities of non-human primates to acquire symbols, comprehend spoken words, decode syntactical structures, learn concepts of number and quantity, and perform complex perceptual-motor tasks has helped changed the way humans view other members of the primate order.
Great Ape Trust Background
When completed, Great Ape Trust will be the largest great ape facility in North America and one of the first worldwide to include all four types of great ape – bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans – for noninvasive interdisciplinary studies of their cognitive and communicative capabilities.
Great Ape Trust is dedicated to providing sanctuary and an honorable life for great apes, studying the intelligence of great apes, advancing conservation of great apes and providing unique educational experiences about great apes. Great Ape Trust of Iowa is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit organization and is certified by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA). |
Great Ape Trust is certified by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums
