NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Chantek

Chantek (born December 17, 1977, at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia) is a male orangutan who has mastered the use of a number of intellectual skills, including sign language, taught by anthropologist Dr. Lyn Miles. In Malay and Indonesian, cantik (pronounced chantik) means lovely or "beautiful". Rather than confinement in a zoo exhibit, Chantek has been kept captive in a habitat a short ride from the main zoo grounds of Zoo Atlanta, ever since the Yerkes Center gave him to the zoo in 1997. Image File history File links Chantek1 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Chantek1 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... The Yerkes National Primate Research Center, located in Atlanta, Georgia at Emory University, is one of eight national primate research centers funded by the National Institutes of Health. ... Nickname: The Horizon City, Hotlanta, The Big Peach Motto: Official website: http://www. ... Type Species Simia pygmaeus Linnaeus, 1760 Species Pongo pygmaeus Pongo abelii Orangutans (also spelled orang utan, orang-utan, sometimes incorrectly orangutang) are two species of great apes with long arms and reddish, sometimes brown, hair native to Malaysia and Indonesia. ... A sign language (also signed language) is a language which uses manual communication instead of sound to convey meaning - simultaneously combining handshapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speakers thoughts. ... See Anthropology. ... Doctor means teacher in Latin. ... The Malay language, also known locally as Bahasa Melayu, is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who are native to the Malay peninsula, southern Thailand, Singapore and parts of Sumatra. ... Free monkeys islands at the SÃ£o Paulo Zoo Panda enclosure at Chiang Mai Zoo Visitors feeding and petting tamed marmots at the Parc Animalier des PyrenÃ©es Aquarium with a dolphin at the Barcelona Zoo Sea lions at the Melbourne Zoo For other uses of the term Zoo... Habitat (from the Latin for it inhabits) is the place where a particular species lives and grows. ... Zoo Atlanta is an AZA-accredited wildlife park and major attraction in Atlanta, Georgia. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII in Roman) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

An intellectual primate

Chantek has a vocabulary of several hundred signs, and understands both spoken English and American Sign Language. Chantek makes and uses tools, creates paintings, necklaces, crafts and music, and is one of only a handful of signing primates scattered across the United States. Washoe, the 32-year-old female chimpanzee is one of the most famous signing apes, and lives in Ellensburg, Washington. Koko, a signing gorilla, lives in Woodside, California. A vocabulary is a set of words known to a person or other entity, or that are part of a specific language. ... Understanding is a psychological state in relation to an object or person whereby one is able to think about it and use concepts to be able to deal adequately with that object. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... American Sign Language (ASL, also Amslan obs. ... A modern hammer is directly descended from ancient hand tools A tool is a device that (most commonly) provides a mechanical advantage in accomplishing a physical task. ... The Mona Lisa is perhaps the best-known artistic painting in the Western world. ... A necklace is an article of clothing or jewelry; which is worn around the neck. ... Arts and crafts comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with ones own hands and skill. ... Music is an art, entertainment, or other human activity which involves organized and audible sound, though definitions vary. ... Families 15, See classification A primate is any member of the biological order Primates, the group that contains all lemurs, monkeys, apes, and humans. ... Washoe Washoe is a chimpanzee, currently living at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI) at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. ... Type Species Simia troglodytes Blumenbach, 1775 Species Pan troglodytes Pan paniscus Chimpanzee, often abbreviated to chimp, is the common name for two species in the genus Pan. ... Ellensburg is a city located in Kittitas County, Washington. ... The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ... Type Species Troglodytes gorilla Savage, 1847 Species Gorilla gorilla Gorilla beringei The gorilla, the largest of the primates, is a ground-dwelling herbivore that inhabits the forests of Africa. ... Woodside (pop. ...

Orangutans comprise an exceedingly intelligent great ape genus native to Malaysia and Indonesia, who have long arms and reddish, sometimes brown, hair. The term "orangutan" is derived from the Malay phrase orang hutan, meaning "man of the forest". Males have characteristic cheekpads, which only grow with sufficient testosterone levels, and use a deeply resonant voice to make resounding 'long calls', and tend to spend months alone in the wild without significant interaction with other orangutans. Genera Subfamily Ponginae Pongo - Orangutans Gigantopithecus (extinct) Sivapithecus (extinct) Subfamily Homininae Gorilla - Gorillas Pan - Chimpanzees Homo - Humans Paranthropus (extinct) Australopithecus (extinct) Sahelanthropus (extinct) Ardipithecus (extinct) Kenyanthropus (extinct) Pierolapithecus (extinct) (tentative) The Hominids (Hominidae) are a biological family which includes humans, extinct species of humanlike creatures and the other great apes... In biology, a genus (plural genera) is a grouping in the classification of living organisms having one or more related and morphologically similar species. ... Not to be confused with the Malayalam language, spoken in India. ... Image of a man on the Pioneer plaque sent to interstellar space A man is a male human adult, in contrast to an adult female, which is a woman. ... A dense growth of softwoods (a conifer forest) in the Sierra Nevada Range of Northern California A forest is an area with a high density of trees (or, historically, a wooded area set aside for hunting). ... Testosterone is a steroid hormone from the androgen group. ...

Early life

From the age of nine months, Dr. Miles raised Chantek as a signing infant, rearing him as much as possible as a human child on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Miles toilet-trained Chantek, and gave him chores and an allowance, using steel washers as money. His favorite way to spend it was on fast food. A human infant The word infant derives from the Latin word in-fans, meaning unable to speak. It is commonly used as a slightly more formal word for baby (the youngest category of child). ... University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is a university located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. ... Assorted washers: flat, split, star and insulated A washer is a thin disk with a hole, usually in the middle. ... An example of Money. ...

Born At Yerkes, Chantek was transferred to the university when he was nine months old to learn from Dr. Miles. He returned to Yerkes for a short time, and then spent about nine years living in a trailer at Dr. Miles' home near the university. His current habitat at Zoo Atlanta is an enclosure that affords him private space and is expansive with plenty of trees for swinging from branch to branch (brachiation). Brachiation (to brachiate) means moving about by swinging from one arm to another, for example through a tree, using branches as holds. ...

Chantek as a person

Like children, Chantek prefers to use names rather than pronouns - as the reference is fixed - even when talking to a person. He even invents signs of his own (e.g., 'eye-drink' for contact lens solution, and 'Dave missing finger' for a special friend). He developed referential ability as early as most human children, and points to and shows objects just like humans do. Chantek uses adjectives to specify attributes, such as "red bird", and "white cheese food eat", yet he overgeneralizes in interesting ways, too. For example, he uses the sign 'Lyn' for all caregivers, but never for strangers. A female child A child (plural: children) is a young human. ... A name is a label for a thing, person, place, product (as in a brand name) and even an idea or concept, normally used to distinguish one from another. ... In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun phrase. ... Person, in the classic sense, refers to a living human being. ... In music, an invention is a short composition with two or three part counterpoint. ... Binomial name Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Subspecies Homo sapiens idaltu (extinct) Homo sapiens sapiens Homo (genus). ... An adjective is a part of speech which modifies a noun, usually describing it or making its meaning more specific. ... Caregiver is the modern terminology for a spouse, relative, friend or neighbor of a disabled person who assists with activities of daily living. ...

Chantek also demonstrates self-awareness, by grooming himself in a mirror and by using signs in mental planning and deception. Rather than simply exhibiting conditioned responses, as critics of primate intellect contend, Chantek has learned roles - and role reversals - in games like 'Simon Says'. Like many other orangutans who have demonstrated phenomenal problem solving skills, Chantek exhibits certain intutitive and thinking character traits comparable to the rationality used in human engineering. His intellectual and linguistic abilities make some scientists, including Dr. Miles, regard him as possessing personhood. Self-awareness is the ability to perceive ones own existence, including ones own traits, feelings and behaviours. ... A mirror is a surface with good specular reflection that is smooth enough to form an image. ... Planning is the management function that is concerned with defining goals for future organizational performance and deciding on the tasks and resources needed to be used in order to attain the said goals. ... Deception (or mystification) is to intentionally distort the truth in order to mislead others. ... Conditioning is a psychological term for what Ivan Pavlov described as the learning of conditional behavior. ... Intelligence is a general mental capability that involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. ... Look up engineer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... An intellectual is a person who uses his or her intellect to study, reflect, or speculate on a variety of different ideas. ... Broadly conceived, linguistics is the study of human language, and a linguist is someone who engages in this study. ... Albert Einstein is almost without question, currently the most widely recognized scientist among the general public. ... Person, in the classic sense, refers to a living human being. ...

Effects of captivity

As a captive allowed to indulge in his fondness for fast food, Chantek's weight threatened to become a lifelong problem. Raised in a human setting, Chantek became very fat, about five hundred pounds. Concerned scientists prescribed a strict diet for him, but as a result, five hundred pounds of contentment transformed into four hundred pounds of inspired rationality. Determined to find food while on his diet, and true to the clever spirit imbued in the DNA of his pedigree, Chantek pulled off an entirely predictable escape -- orangutans frequently escape confinement, often despite elaborate precautions taken by their captors. Chantek was later found, gorging himself from an up-ended food barrel. The general structure of a section of DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid â€”usually in the form of a double helixâ€” that contains the genetic instructions specifying the biological development of all cellular forms of life (and most viruses). ... A pedigree is a list of ancestors (usually implying distinguished), a list of ancestors of the same breed (usually in the case of animals), the purity of a breed, individual, or strain, or a document proving any of these things. ...

Thus, in 1986, when Chantek was eight, the University shipped Chantek back to Yerkes, allowing Miles only limited visits for a few years. For a while, Yerkes even refused to allow Miles merely to see Chantek. 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Orangutan 'personhood' and conservation efforts

Miles would prefer freedom for Chantek, even going so far as to advocate personhood for Chantek and other great apes. The term personhood is often ascribed by experts to animals who demonstrate conscious awareness, language, and acculturation. Miles and like-minded advocates seek to expand personhood to great apes, to the extent that - eventually - legal rights of personhood would be conferred under the law. Freedom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... It has been suggested that Barrister#Advocates in Scotland be merged into this article or section. ... Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ... Pocahontas, in England, as Mrs John Rolfe, 1616: engraving after Simon Van de Passe Acculturation is the obtainment of culture by an individual or a group of people. ...

To further her objectives, Miles created 'Project Chantek', seeking to better understand the mind of an orangutan. Miles hopes her findings will help ascertain how human symbolic systems may have evolved and developed. Uniquely, her project emphasizes development of cultural models and processes in Chantek’s upbringing. Her work is supported by the Chantek Foundation, whose mission is to develop greater scientific understanding of orangutans, to support cultural and language research with orangutans, to promote orangutan conservation and establish culture-based great ape sanctuaries, and to foster education programs that will facilitate understanding of great apes as persons, thereby building a bridge between humans and great apes. The word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). ... For the scientific journal named Science, see Science (journal). ... Conservation may refer to the following: Conservation ethic in relation to preserving ecosystems Conservationist Conservation movement Conservation ecology Conservation biology Energy conservation in reducing non-renewable energy consumption Conservation law of physics Conservation of energy Conservation of mass Conservation (genetics) in genetics Conservation (botany) in botanical nomenclature Conservation (psychology) in... Sanctuary has multiple meanings. ... Person, in the classic sense, refers to a living human being. ...

The Chantek Foundation is a member of ApeNet, founded by musician Peter Gabriel to link great apes through the internet, creating the first interspecies internet communication. A musician is a person who plays or composes music. ... Cover art from the album So, Gabriels biggest commercial success Peter Brian Gabriel (born February 13, 1950, in Cobham, Surrey) is an English musician. ... Communication is the process of exchanging information, usually via a common protocol. ...

Contents

An intellectual primate

Early life

Chantek as a person

Effects of captivity

Orangutan 'personhood' and conservation efforts

See also

References

External links