Ted Talk By Susan Savage-Rumbaugh: Apes And Humans

The Ted talk presented by Susan Savage-Rumbaugh brings up an entire new world of understanding when it comes to apes and humans. Savage-Rumbaugh was able to bring up several instances of our correlation, such as tools, social interaction, and intelligence. Her presentation was one that is respectable, but not all of her statements have support. Bonobos are apes that do in fact have a striking resemblance to humans, but how far does this similarity go? Bonobos and chimps are the closest organisms to man and because of this we share some skills, such as tool building (Choi 2012). Like chimps are able to build tools to find food (termites), bonobos can make tools for given tasks. In the Ted talk a bonobo was shown making stone flakes, similar to early man, to cut through thick hide for a treat. In 1990 a similar experiment was done where the same two bonobos, Kanzi and Pan-Banisha, where given the task of breaking a log. By smashing two rocks together they produced sharp flakes which they then used to cut away at the log (Choi 2012). This experiment is very similar to the one conducted in the Ted talk, and bore the same results as well. The most fascinating development of both

The actual idea is very broad and does include tools and social hierarchy’s, but provides a short summary of how these traits are actually not unique to humans at all. Bonobos, like Kanzi, have been taught the meaning behind words, and are able to identify these objects using a lexigram (IPLS 2007), but this only shows the ability of communication between humans and bonobos. Bonobos and other non-human apes (along with many other organisms) use smells, gestures, and body language to speak to one another. Bonobos are also very intellectual, they are able to learn things very quickly, and some have the same grasp on words as a 3 year old child. Bonobosalong with other apes are in fact very similar to