1. Wyatt Hilyard
M. Scoggin
ANTH 410
April 25, 2013
Fantasy Project Proposal – Cognitive and Communicative Ability in Bonobos
My proposal is a research project on the capacity for the great apes to communicate with
humans. I would like to do my research at the Iowa Primate Learning Sanctuary, formerly known
as the Great Ape Trust. Their facility provides several already well-educated bonobo individuals
of varying ages, and adequate communication and testing equipment. I believe, while the
academic world knows much more about primate cognition and ability to communicate with
humans than it did ten years ago, there are still areas of research to further explore.
The individuals at the research facility in Iowa, especially Kanzi and Teco, are perfect
subjects for further testing, as they already have already been educated to have an impressive
ability for communication. At almost three years of age, Teco is a very interesting case due to the
fact that he has been brought up, since birth, in an environment that encourages human language
comprehension and communication. His father, Kanzi, was nine months old when the founders
of the research site started working with him. Over the years, they developed and honed their
own approach and tools for teaching, which are now available to Teco. This improved
methodology of the program gives him the possibility of even deeper ape-human communication
skills. It is possible that, over the years, he will show us higher levels of inter-species
communication that Kanzi's case was not able to demonstrate.
I want to be part of this research. I believe this kind of research is important to understand
more about our own evolution and potential for neurological processes, as well as the cognitive

2. capabilities of bonobos as their own species.
The current project leaders have a good understanding of their subjects' cognitive ability,
but an independent test would be a good idea prior to new research. I would administer Hermann
and Call's Primate Cognition Test Battery (PCTB) to the six individuals at the Iowa facility. The
same test would be administered to a similar age/gender spread of humans, for comparison. I
would then have both groups perform various new tasks that stretch their ability for problem
solving and communication. The tasks would mostly be more difficult variations of those in the
PCTB. Additional tests of receptive understanding of spoken English would be performed as
well.
The use of this research would depend on the results. If it is found that bonobos are
capable of more than we previously thought, the new tests would give us new insight into their
abilities. Inferences might also be made as to our own evolution as Homo sapiens, and the
evolutionary changes that occurred after the split from the last common ancestor with the
bonobos. Further research could be done with populations of other great apes in order to obtain a
larger, interspecies view. However, the unique nature of the Iowa bonobo research site and its
subjects is a large part of its inclusion in this project, and adjustments would have to be made for
other populations.