Loulis (born May 10, 1978) is a
chimpanzee who has learned to communicate in American Sign Language.
Loulis was named for two caregivers (Louise and Lisa) at the
Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center
The Emory National Primate Research Center (formerly known as Yerkes National Primate Research Center) located in Atlanta, Georgia, owned by Emory University, is a center of biomedical and behavioral research, is dedicated to improving human and a ...
in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was born. After ten months at Yerkes, Loulis was transferred to Oklahoma with
Roger Fouts and
Washoe, his adoptive mother. In 1980, the family moved to Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. By 1993, the
Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI) was built for the family to reside. Loulis's biological mother remained at Yerkes and was used for medical research. In 2013, he moved from the CHCI to the chimpanzee sanctuary of the
Fauna Foundation
The Fauna Foundation is the only chimpanzee sanctuary in Canada. Located just outside Chambly, on the South Shore of Montreal, the story of Fauna started in 1990 by Gloria Grow and Dr. Richard Allan on their farm. Later in 1997, it became the ...
in Canada.
Language abilities
Washoe and three other chimpanzees (Tatu, Dar, and Moja) were raised as if they were deaf human children and acquired
American Sign Language. The chimpanzees regularly use the hand signals to communicate with each other and humans. Loulis is the only chimpanzee in the family who was not cross-fostered (he wasn't raised by humans but rather Washoe and the other chimpanzees).
After eight days with Washoe, Loulis learned his first sign. For the first five years of his life, Loulis's human handlers only used seven signs around him (the signs used were ''who'', ''which'', ''want'', ''where'', ''name'', ''that'', and ''sign''). Loulis was able to acquire what he learned of ASL from Washoe.
The details of this research can be found in ''Teaching Sign Language to Chimpanzees'' edited by Allen and Beatrix Gardner.
See also
*
Great ape language
Research into great ape language has involved teaching chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans to communicate with humans and with each other using sign language, physical tokens, lexigrams, and mimicking human speech. Some primatologists ...
*
List of individual apes
This is a list of non-human apes of encyclopedic interest. It includes individual chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, bonobos, and gibbons that are in some way famous or notable.
Actors
* Bam Bam, an orangutan, played Precious on the soap opera ...
References
External links
Homepage of the Friends of Washoe
Individual chimpanzees
Apes from language studies
Animal intelligence
Primatology
1978 animal births
Sign language
{{primate-stub