Ape Gets Pissed Off Again - Triggers Fire Alarm For Second Time In Two Months

[matcom]

<snip>

DES MOINES, Iowa --Panbanisha the bonobo is up to her tricks again. For the second time in two months, the 20-year-old animal triggered a fire alarm at the Great Ape Trust of Iowa research center.

The trouble started at about 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, when Panbanisha wanted to go outside but the staff was too busy to let her out, trust officials said. Panbanisha then apparently lost her temper and pulled the alarm, officials said.

It's a trick Panbanisha initially learned in October when she saw a welder start the alarm. It took her less than a day to learn how to duplicate the excitement.

When the alarm sounded again the next morning, "I went to check on Pan, and she was sitting there next to it with a smile on her face," said lead scientist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh last month.

Savage-Rumbaugh said she explained the danger of such mischief and Panbanisha promised not to do it again.

Panbanisha is one of seven bonobos at the Great Ape Trust and was among the first group to arrive in April 2005. Bonobos are one of the most human-like of the great apes and have sophisticated language skills.

Trust spokesman Al Setka said there are fire alarms throughout the center. The one Panbanisha triggered was about the level of a light switch and had a pull handle, he said.

Trust officials said they will cover the alarms to prevent a third prank from Panbanisha.

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2006/11/15/clever_bonobo_again_triggers_fire_alarm?mode=PF

[billyskank]

1. Huh?

"Savage-Rumbaugh said she explained the danger of such mischief and Panbanisha promised not to do it again."

:wtf:


:freak:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

6. Read Roger Fout's book...

"Next of Kin" and you will learn all about the levels of deep communication that is now possible between humans and our cousins. It is TRULY amazing, and makes the type of research we do on them even more horrifying.

[Texasgal]

2. Wow...

her breasts look like good nursin' boobs... in public ofcourse.


























:hide:

[Whoa_Nelly]

3. Would someone PLEASE get that ape some covering????

Oh...just waking up...wrong ape...sorry...

[radfringe]

4. apes and sign language

years ago I read an article about apes and teaching them sign language.

what was fascinating is their ability to "create" their own words. One ape was shown a photo of a duck. The ape had never been taught the sign for "duck". The ape signed "water bird"..

This same ape was also under video surveillence, and one of the trainers started to notice the ape would make the same "sign" when a particular worker entered the facilities to clean cages. It was a few weeks of observation before the trainer realized the ape was signing "shithead". The ape didn't like that particular worker... :rofl:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

7. Yup...

they can develop their own signs and have passed the language on to their children. Roger Fouts is working with a chimp group that has three generations of chimps that use sign language.

[Squeech]

8. Cool!

I know one of Penny Patterson's goals for the Koko project was to get Koko and Michael, her two ASL-speaking gorillas, to reproduce-- and then to see whether they'd teach ASL to their offspring. We think of communication as a valuable skill, but one of the most prominent unanswered questions about the language experiments with the other primates is whether *they* think it's worth the trouble.

That part of the experiment never panned out: Michael died before he could get Koko in a family way :cry:

Koko's language use has been quite amazing. They gave her a radish once, without telling her what it was, and she signed "Cry hurt fruit."

They also once asked her whether she preferred the humans in her environment to be standing or not. She very emphatically signed "down." So now, whenever I deal with animals, I crouch down. (Not that any of the animals in my circle are language users.)

[Hell Hath No Fury]

9. Check out the Fouts' book...

I mentioned up thread -- it is lifechanging.

One of the funniest exchanges I have ever seen is between Koko and Robin Williams -- her nipple obsession really took him by surprise! Hearing him talk about their expeprience together is a blast.

[underpants]

5. Savage-Rumbaugh only one step removed on the talk radio lineage

the Great Ape Trust of Iowa :rofl:

[BikeWriter]

10. The bitch lied. Almost human, she is.