My careful observations of chimps, comparing their specific
behaviors to those of humans, have shown me that our thoughts and actions
overlap in many ways. These up-close-and-personal experiences have given
me proof of their compassion, their cooperation, their empathy, their
duplicity. The reason that chimps are the frequent subjects of scientific
experiments is the very reason that testing land inferior treatment is
wrong: More than just our biological cousins, they are also our
psychological and emotional cousins.
Natural Nurturers
One of the emotional traits that people deem most uniquely "human"
is empathy. Yet empathy is one of Washoe's most obvious personal
characteristics. From day one, I had already seen traces of Washoe's
ability to react to other creatures' feelings--namely, mine. But I truly
detected her compassion in 1970, when Gardner's entire research unit
moved to the Oklahoma Institute of Primate Studies. Here, Washoe was no
longer the baby of the family but was now living with chimpanzees a few
years younger than herself. The Institute was a sort of home for wayward
chimpanzees, so there were always young chimps coming and going. Soon,
Washoe seemed to feel responsible for the young transplants, perhaps
because she had been one herself. (She had been "wild-collected" from
Africa at an early age by the U.S. space program, where she would've
become a subject in medical experiments had the Gardners not taken to her
during a visit to the program.)
One of the new arrivals, Bruno, had come to Oklahoma after
participating in Herbert Terrace's failed language project in New York.
He had been raised by humans since birth, so he wasn't trained in basic
chimpanzee survival skills or accustomed to the wilds of Oklahoma, where
water moccasins and copperheads abounded. Chimpanzees are naturally
frightened of snakes. One day, a resident chimp cried out, signaling that
snakes were present. All of the animals moved rapidly away from that end
of the island, except for Bruno. Washoe was halfway to safety when she
tamed and saw Bruno sitting on the snake-infested side of the island,
blissfully unaware of impending danger. Washoe stood up and emphatically
signed "COME HUG COME HUG" to Bruno, but the youngster remained sitting
where he was, since he hadn't yet learned ASL. Amazingly, Washoe scurried
back to the danger zone, took Bruno by his hand and led him to the safe
end of the island.
Washoe also displayed her nurturing mentality during even more
perilous rescue missions while at the Institute. The island was
surrounded by a moat with steep and slippery red clay sides. After a
drowning occurred, a two-strand, 3-foot-high electric fence was built
around the edge of the island. The metal poles holding the wire were
placed in the grassy ledge about six inches from the water. Penny, a new
chimpanzee, arrived on the island one morning and, later that day, I
heard her screaming at the top of her lungs, likely as a result of being
teased by the boys. Penny must have panicked, because the next sound I
heard was a splash. She had taken a running jump over the fence and into
the moat--a frightening situation, since chimpanzees can't swim. I was
prepared to go in after her but Washoe beat me to it. She jumped over the
electric fence, landing precariously on the short, grassy ledge at the
edge of the moat, then slipped into the water while holding onto the
bottom of the electric fence post. She grabbed one of Penny's arms and
pulled her to safety. I ran for a boat and dragged both of them into it,
rowing them back to the island's landing. To this day, I am astounded by
the dangerous rescue that I witnessed. Washoe had risked her own life to
save another chimpanzee, one she had known for only a few hours.
Reading Feelings
Perhaps the most striking examples of the chimpanzees' sense of
sympathy and empathy involves their emotional reactions to seeing humans
in pain. In 1980, Washoe and I moved to Central Washington
University--our current home--along with Loulis, her adopted son, and
other surrogate siblings, Moja, Dar and Tatu, from the Gardners' second
project. While acting as a parent volunteer on a high school ski trip one
weekend, I fell and broke my arm. My physician had not put my arm in a
cast, so any movement was quite painful until the bones knitted. The
following Monday I walked into our laboratory with my arm in a sling. All
of the chimpanzees must have seen the pain I was trying to hide written
plainly on my face, because instead of the raucous pant-hoot greeting
they typically let loose upon seeing me, they all sat very still and
watched me intently. Washoe signed "THERE" and pointed to my arm, so I
approached and knelt down by the wire mesh partition surrounding the
chimps' large living space. She gently put her fingers through the wire
and groomed my arm gently, making a soft clicking noise with her tongue.
Tatu, in turn, signed "HURT" and gently touched me as well. Even
10-year-old Loulis understood enough not to ask me for his usual "CHASE"
game until several weeks later, when I was on the mend.
Tags:
33 years,
american sign language,
behavior,
big hug,
chain link fence,
chimpanzee,
clinical psychology,
cousins,
emotions,
experimental psychologist,
experimental psychology,
first glimpse,
genes,
laboratory methods,
mathematical precision,
reno campus,
research background,
surrogate father,
sympathy,
university of nevada,
university of nevada at reno
