The apes that learn sign language should have been given the opportunity to have a family and teach their kids. Within a few generations youd have fully cohesive conversations with entire communities or families of apes. I love orangutans particularly, theyre brilliant, beautiful, and so friendly and chill. ❤
I knew Chantek back at UTC from 81-85. One of my friends, Roy, worked on the project, and we all saw Chantek about once a week as we went to class. He was everywhere on campus; once, he and his trainer sat beside me at a play, and I didn't think twice about it. I remember they would take him to visit with children at a nearby school for the deaf and the children confirmed he was genuinely having conversations with them. I had heard he was sent to the Yerkes center after "he got too big to handle" (whatever that meant). I didn't know about the mistreatment at the Yerkes or that he was even still alive, so I was very surprised about 2 years ago when I recognized him at Zoo Atlanta. He was much older and fatter but his face was the same. There was no name on the enclosure but I knew it was him, so I signed his name to him, then confirmed his identity with the staff. They said he still loved cheeseburgers, and would occasionally escape--they'd find him sitting just outside the enclosure in the morning before the zoo opened. He'd willingly go back inside; he was just having some fun. The enclosure was large and pleasant; I hope he was happy there. The zoo staff knew some sign language, and would try to communicate with him. The zookeeper said he was morbidly obese when he arrived, and they'd worked very hard to help him get to a healthier weight. I just read that he passed away about a year ago, from heart/weight related complications. I guess cheeseburgers aren't healthy for any of us! Anyway, RIP, my friend. I think fondly of you.
I saw this story last night on pbs. it broke my heart. i went to prison. i know how he feels. but he did nothing to be punished. I have a son thats autistic. he does a lot of things like he does. makes up his own words and signs. some one said when he was little we should put him in a home. i havent spoke to this person again, that was 25 years ago.
Joannot He mentioned that in his comment and I quote him: -“but he did nothing to be punished”- Troy went to prison and he is redeemed now. So you pointing out that he did something “unlawful” was totally unnecessary.
Reunite dr miles and chantec. This is criminal. Dr miles, please go to court and let him speak in a legal proceeding. He should be recognized as having the ability to choose.this is horribly sad. I'm so sorry.
can't believe Chanteq is in a zoo, let alone spent 11 years in a cage. He has grown up as a human being, and thus any human put into captivity with little intellectual stimulation/very little human contact will at the very least be unhappy and depressed. Chanteq, along with every other animal in captivity, deserves better.
Now the poor thing is bored out of his damn mind. He needs to be intellectually challenged like a gifted child would or any of us for that matter. Learning for him was fascinating, exciting & stimulating. You can't expose him to that kind of thinking then cut it off. His soul is dead now.
If you guys get a chance, take a look at the Iowa Ape Trust (it might have changed name again but its still in Iowa) where Kanzi and the other intelligent Bonobos live. Their funding was cut and rely solely on donations.
This is about the blurring of boundaries between humans and the "animals". I've never accepted the idea of humans on top and animals below and never been able to accept the idea that a god gave us 'dominion over the animals'. As we learn more about the other inhabitants of this planet and how similar we are to them, it seems to me that the distinctiveness of being human seems to be less certain. Do we have souls, for example. Do great apes have souls as well, perhaps? What about shrews and oysters; how far down the intelligence ladder does 'soul' go? I'd rather view it that none of us have souls; not Cardinals, Imans or termites. In which case, the grounds for perceiving a god diminish too.
Teaching an ape how to make a knot, how to use a knot, and make art with a knot, and having that ape care enough to keep that knowledge as a skill, is mind blowing.
While I do believe Dr. Miles cared for and loved Chantek (as he loved her) it always makes me wonder why that scientific team couldn't get better security for him at the college. That would have prevented him from being shipped to that horrible 5x5 cage he was kept in.. and prevented him from getting stuck in a zoo. If we are going to introduce them to a different type of culture and communication we essentially take away their innocence and should be obligated to respect them for the beings we pushed them to be. It is a very good argument that she makes regarding space exploration and our desire to make contact with other beings outside our solar system. It does seem funny that we wouldn't also attempt more in the way of profound communication with other life on the planet where we live. There are so many animals like Chantek who are born in captivity and it would be very insightful to develop a culture where they were able to communicate with us and each other. We could learn a lot about ourselves and the world around us. I agree 100% with the people who made comments that Chantek isn't particularly special. That all or most great apes are capable of learning advanced communication (lexigrams, sign language, etc). Maybe the reason we haven't explored these ideas more is that we are stuck with the idea that we are special compared to animals. That arrogance prevents us from recognizing sentience in other species and learning about life. The lack of follow through on the part of the human beings involved is what makes Chantek's story so tragic to me. In the future, an ethical approach might be insisting on a decades long commitment from the scientists who want to be involved with creating and studying a cross species culture.
The part when she said he wants to come home is reminiscent to the planet of the apes movie with Andy Serkis as Cesar wanting to come home. Very sad turn of events. Get that orangutan a cheeseburger.
Very moving and I hope I live to see a time when so-called 'animals' are given a status of sentient beings with rights to live on this planet with us. I suspect this is a key test of human growth, spirituality and spiritual intelligence. Many of our human cultures have trained us into eating 'animals' and separating families for our food usage and destroying natural habitats for arable farming etc. I have started to untrain myself from eating gentle beings we share this planet with and, sometimes, since I started this journey I find it difficult not to refer to 'animals'. They appear to me as 'people' of a different variation. A different organisation of buidling blocks that make humans - 'person'. This is my own personal reflection on my life and I am not about to impose this on anyone else. So my view of these beings has really changed since I stopped eating so many beings with no thought about the life that had passed to feed me. I am observing this change within myself with deep interest. For an individual human it is a case of think global and act local on this one. As omnivores, millions and billions of us humans have a choice to do the right thing according to our own deeper sensibilities. I suspect we have much to learn from these beings when we learn to listen to them. As 'people' like Chantek start to make contact with us. Or just the part of us we have suppressed for millennia about who and what we are.
Employ an independent animal psychic to ask Chantek to tell the truth. He looked very depressed at the zoo. Was it because he didn't like life in the zoo? Was it because he felt betrayed by his adopted mother, Lyn, who did very little to get him out of 5x5 cage at Yerkes despite his continuous pleading for 11 years?
Lyn did her best to get him out of there, although he wouldn't have known the full extent of her efforts. He certainly did prefer the zoo to his being in a cage. I think he missed the intellectual stimulation, as well as his favorite foods like ice cream and hamburgers.
Poor Chantek :'-( but why was he given ice cream and cheeseburgers?..Koko was in a way better experimental study. I think Lyn experiment/study was very selfish and was horrible that noone did anything for Chantek for 11 years when he was practically in prison. Why was he not taken to a sanctuary? ..I think Lyn and her team did very little for him. He is an smart creature living in captivity with "orange dogs" ( from the documentary when he described to Lyn the other orangutans) He doesn't belong in a zoo he is SMART! !
Lyn Miles muchas gracias. Pude ver en Animal Planet el documental de Chantek es una historia realmente conmovedora muchas gracias por dejarnos conocer a Chantek a tu niño adoptivo y dedicar tantos años de tu vida para saber que también tienen sentimientos y pueden comunicar sus emociones con los humanos son muy inteligentes y divertidos yo también amo las hamburguesas y los helados!
My daughter didn’t utter her first word at age one - it was a sentence, a command! When encouraged to feed herself, she looked at my step-father and said, quite clearly “Sidney do it.” From that day on she never stopped talking, not even when asleep. We could hear one sided conversations all night long!
Humans are not apes, but humans and apes do have a common ancestor, the ancestor we shared split up into the various human species and primate species.
Given the present day prospects of fundraising for popular projects using crowd sourcing and your ability to promote any future plans for his life, does any possibility exist for you to gain the legal rights needed to provide for his future care? It seems like such a project could make a wonderful joint-venture.
Imagine one day, working side by side with an Orangutan or a Bonobo in an office environment, or watching two politicians debating, one a Chimpanzee, and another a parrot. Truly, this world is diverse and wonderful, and perhaps someday we can share it side by side with them. I am very thankful to God that I was born in this century. If we all work hard and strive, we might in our very lifetimes see the colonization of space, enfranchisement of intelligent sentient species, and the end of warfare. Imagine a world like Star Trek, but where we might even have orangutan or gorilla colonies on other worlds. Truly, if we work hard, and don't succumb to petty squabbling, divisiveness, and abusing others, we can make a world our ancestors could only dream of :)
Koko couldn’t sign, this is a myth Are you supposed to raise an orangutan as a person? She seems very self referential and entertained by his antics. We know primates use tools and that they are clever enough to manipulate their keepers for treats.
Animals are just non human persons and I am simply a phallic based women. I understand now! Why bother with useful definitions so that we can categorize and celebrate diversity when we are really all the same?
I may have a feasible explanation for the intelligence of these animals. If you are an Atheist you won't believe me. However, there is only one type of Spirit. Every living thing on this Earth all have the same kind of Spirit. Those Spirits all have the same learning ability for attention to and retention of the knowledge they glean from their experiences they go through on this earth. EVERY LIVING THING on this Earth gathers and retains what they have learned in their life. In the Bible the Book of Revelations states that when Jesus returns to harvest us that ". . . even the very ROCKS shall sing." Picture all of the big boulders on every mountainside lifting up their voices in worship to welcome Him. So even THEY must have a Spirit in order to be able to SING. We as Humans have learned so much since our existence on this Earth began and yet, because of that statement, there is so much more that we still have yet to learn.
***** Well, in fact every orangutan is an orangutan person since they all are unique individuals with their own feelings, thoughts and personality. It also applies to many other species. We, as humans, like to think the word "person" only applies to a human being, but we're wrong.
The apes that learn sign language should have been given the opportunity to have a family and teach their kids. Within a few generations youd have fully cohesive conversations with entire communities or families of apes. I love orangutans particularly, theyre brilliant, beautiful, and so friendly and chill. ❤
I knew Chantek back at UTC from 81-85. One of my friends, Roy, worked on the project, and we all saw Chantek about once a week as we went to class. He was everywhere on campus; once, he and his trainer sat beside me at a play, and I didn't think twice about it. I remember they would take him to visit with children at a nearby school for the deaf and the children confirmed he was genuinely having conversations with them. I had heard he was sent to the Yerkes center after "he got too big to handle" (whatever that meant). I didn't know about the mistreatment at the Yerkes or that he was even still alive, so I was very surprised about 2 years ago when I recognized him at Zoo Atlanta. He was much older and fatter but his face was the same. There was no name on the enclosure but I knew it was him, so I signed his name to him, then confirmed his identity with the staff. They said he still loved cheeseburgers, and would occasionally escape--they'd find him sitting just outside the enclosure in the morning before the zoo opened. He'd willingly go back inside; he was just having some fun. The enclosure was large and pleasant; I hope he was happy there. The zoo staff knew some sign language, and would try to communicate with him. The zookeeper said he was morbidly obese when he arrived, and they'd worked very hard to help him get to a healthier weight. I just read that he passed away about a year ago, from heart/weight related complications. I guess cheeseburgers aren't healthy for any of us! Anyway, RIP, my friend. I think fondly of you.
amazing
This video made me cry. Chentek was let down by humans. He was raised a person but died as an ape. We as a species failed him. :( RIP Chantek.
I saw this story last night on pbs. it broke my heart. i went to prison. i know how he feels. but he did nothing to be punished. I have a son thats autistic. he does a lot of things like he does. makes up his own words and signs. some one said when he was little we should put him in a home. i havent spoke to this person again, that was 25 years ago.
not really, you probably did something unlawful and willingly did something to go to prison, Chantek and any animals didn't.
Gene wise, orangutans are basically human
Joannot
He mentioned that in his comment and I quote him: -“but he did nothing to be punished”-
Troy went to prison and he is redeemed now. So you pointing out that he did something “unlawful” was totally unnecessary.
You should record a video telling your story, sounds like you have an interesting tale to tell
Please don't give up Lyn! I believe in you because we all believe in Chantek!
Reunite dr miles and chantec. This is criminal. Dr miles, please go to court and let him speak in a legal proceeding. He should be recognized as having the ability to choose.this is horribly sad. I'm so sorry.
I agree
RIP Chantek. Died 7th August, 2017. Aged 39yrs. 😞
can't believe Chanteq is in a zoo, let alone spent 11 years in a cage. He has grown up as a human being, and thus any human put into captivity with little intellectual stimulation/very little human contact will at the very least be unhappy and depressed. Chanteq, along with every other animal in captivity, deserves better.
Now the poor thing is bored out of his damn mind. He needs to be intellectually challenged like a gifted child would or any of us for that matter. Learning for him was fascinating, exciting & stimulating. You can't expose him to that kind of thinking then cut it off. His soul is dead now.
Cheryl Ferrara preach my friend preach
He’s dead my friend
She should start a gofundme page! I bet she would get her center soon!
I would definitely donate and do what I could to make that happen
I would too and I have not donated to anything in my life. Im 30 years old.
i would support this too! 100%
If you guys get a chance, take a look at the Iowa Ape Trust (it might have changed name again but its still in Iowa) where Kanzi and the other intelligent Bonobos live. Their funding was cut and rely solely on donations.
Cantik (read: chantek) means beautiful in Indonesian
This is about the blurring of boundaries between humans and the "animals". I've never accepted the idea of humans on top and animals below and never been able to accept the idea that a god gave us 'dominion over the animals'.
As we learn more about the other inhabitants of this planet and how similar we are to them, it seems to me that the distinctiveness of being human seems to be less certain. Do we have souls, for example. Do great apes have souls as well, perhaps? What about shrews and oysters; how far down the intelligence ladder does 'soul' go?
I'd rather view it that none of us have souls; not Cardinals, Imans or termites. In which case, the grounds for perceiving a god diminish too.
+Talkative Ape I don't think condemning an entire religion helps anything.
Nick Wyatt You guys don't know what the translated word for "dominion" is I see.
Yup you nailed it
Teaching an ape how to make a knot, how to use a knot, and make art with a knot, and having that ape care enough to keep that knowledge as a skill, is mind blowing.
While I do believe Dr. Miles cared for and loved Chantek (as he loved her) it always makes me wonder why that scientific team couldn't get better security for him at the college. That would have prevented him from being shipped to that horrible 5x5 cage he was kept in.. and prevented him from getting stuck in a zoo. If we are going to introduce them to a different type of culture and communication we essentially take away their innocence and should be obligated to respect them for the beings we pushed them to be. It is a very good argument that she makes regarding space exploration and our desire to make contact with other beings outside our solar system. It does seem funny that we wouldn't also attempt more in the way of profound communication with other life on the planet where we live. There are so many animals like Chantek who are born in captivity and it would be very insightful to develop a culture where they were able to communicate with us and each other. We could learn a lot about ourselves and the world around us. I agree 100% with the people who made comments that Chantek isn't particularly special. That all or most great apes are capable of learning advanced communication (lexigrams, sign language, etc). Maybe the reason we haven't explored these ideas more is that we are stuck with the idea that we are special compared to animals. That arrogance prevents us from recognizing sentience in other species and learning about life. The lack of follow through on the part of the human beings involved is what makes Chantek's story so tragic to me. In the future, an ethical approach might be insisting on a decades long commitment from the scientists who want to be involved with creating and studying a cross species culture.
RIP Chantek. He passed away at the age of 39 at the Atlanta Zoo, according to the BBC Twitter feed.
The part when she said he wants to come home is reminiscent to the planet of the apes movie with Andy Serkis as Cesar wanting to come home. Very sad turn of events. Get that orangutan a cheeseburger.
Very moving and I hope I live to see a time when so-called 'animals' are given a status of sentient beings with rights to live on this planet with us. I suspect this is a key test of human growth, spirituality and spiritual intelligence.
Many of our human cultures have trained us into eating 'animals' and separating families for our food usage and destroying natural habitats for arable farming etc. I have started to untrain myself from eating gentle beings we share this planet with and, sometimes, since I started this journey I find it difficult not to refer to 'animals'. They appear to me as 'people' of a different variation. A different organisation of buidling blocks that make humans - 'person'. This is my own personal reflection on my life and I am not about to impose this on anyone else. So my view of these beings has really changed since I stopped eating so many beings with no thought about the life that had passed to feed me. I am observing this change within myself with deep interest.
For an individual human it is a case of think global and act local on this one. As omnivores, millions and billions of us humans have a choice to do the right thing according to our own deeper sensibilities.
I suspect we have much to learn from these beings when we learn to listen to them. As 'people' like Chantek start to make contact with us. Or just the part of us we have suppressed for millennia about who and what we are.
Rest In Peace Chantek, WE LET YOU DOWN....
I really cannot understand how could those audiences laugh? It's a completley tragedy. It's not funny at all!!!
Woah, amazing what dedication some people have.
+Sam Holliday Dedicate your ass.
Ermm excuse me?
Excuse me, sir.
Riiight xD
More people like her are needed
Chantek had left T.T And I read from a news said the last time Lyn visited him , he asked a care and take him home...
Rest in peace Chantek 💛
free this special cute intelligent person from the zoo
Employ an independent animal psychic to ask Chantek to tell the truth. He looked very depressed at the zoo. Was it because he didn't like life in the zoo? Was it because he felt betrayed by his adopted mother, Lyn, who did very little to get him out of 5x5 cage at Yerkes despite his continuous pleading for 11 years?
Lyn did her best to get him out of there, although he wouldn't have known the full extent of her efforts. He certainly did prefer the zoo to his being in a cage. I think he missed the intellectual stimulation, as well as his favorite foods like ice cream and hamburgers.
Poor Chantek :'-( but why was he given ice cream and cheeseburgers?..Koko was in a way better experimental study. I think Lyn experiment/study was very selfish and was horrible that noone did anything for Chantek for 11 years when he was practically in prison. Why was he not taken to a sanctuary? ..I think Lyn and her team did very little for him. He is an smart creature living in captivity with "orange dogs" ( from the documentary when he described to Lyn the other orangutans) He doesn't belong in a zoo he is SMART! !
you realize this particular orangutan isn't special right? They are all capable of his level of self awareness and communication.
Koko,Kanzi,and other great apes are grossly overweight. Chantek isn't an isolated incident in unhealthy eating.
Hector Diaz yeah and he died of heart disease likely caused by his diet
Lyn Miles muchas gracias. Pude ver en Animal Planet el documental de Chantek es una historia realmente conmovedora muchas gracias por dejarnos conocer a Chantek a tu niño adoptivo y dedicar tantos años de tu vida para saber que también tienen sentimientos y pueden comunicar sus emociones con los humanos son muy inteligentes y divertidos yo también amo las hamburguesas y los helados!
My daughter didn’t utter her first word at age one - it was a sentence, a command! When encouraged to feed herself, she looked at my step-father and said, quite clearly “Sidney do it.” From that day on she never stopped talking, not even when asleep. We could hear one sided conversations all night long!
Rest In Peace, Chantek ); ❤
This video has very low volume!
Turn your volume up then
@@ianrobson9601 you dont think we would if we could? Maybe what your watching on works better then our devices...
She referenced humans and apes, when, in fact, humans ARE apes. We're the only primate species that can....where do I begin... (:
Humans are not apes, but humans and apes do have a common ancestor, the ancestor we shared split up into the various human species and primate species.
@justiny.8365 word
@justiny.8365 word
@justiny.8365
Humans are unique and special as we domesticated ourselves.
-Supposedly.
@@gabewandrei6616 We are apes.
Given the present day prospects of fundraising for popular projects using crowd sourcing and your ability to promote any future plans for his life, does any possibility exist for you to gain the legal rights needed to provide for his future care? It seems like such a project could make a wonderful joint-venture.
RIP Chantek
He died in that zoo. Serious tragedy.
I think Kanzi should be reclassified as a non-human person
RIP Chantek :(
RIP, Chantek.
R.I.P. ;(
#ApeRightsMatter
RIP CHANTEK !
rip chantek!
This is simply amazing but I have so many ethical and moral problems with teaching apes the human condition.
rip
5:44 i keep looking at the first one and giggling
I cannot hear her.
couldn't get any sound.
Imagine one day, working side by side with an Orangutan or a Bonobo in an office environment, or watching two politicians debating, one a Chimpanzee, and another a parrot. Truly, this world is diverse and wonderful, and perhaps someday we can share it side by side with them.
I am very thankful to God that I was born in this century. If we all work hard and strive, we might in our very lifetimes see the colonization of space, enfranchisement of intelligent sentient species, and the end of warfare. Imagine a world like Star Trek, but where we might even have orangutan or gorilla colonies on other worlds. Truly, if we work hard, and don't succumb to petty squabbling, divisiveness, and abusing others, we can make a world our ancestors could only dream of :)
Koko couldn’t sign, this is a myth
Are you supposed to raise an orangutan as a person? She seems very self referential and entertained by his antics. We know primates use tools and that they are clever enough to manipulate their keepers for treats.
this is real plant of app1; terrible human~! it's all too late, he is died...
Animals are just non human persons and I am simply a phallic based women. I understand now! Why bother with useful definitions so that we can categorize and celebrate diversity when we are really all the same?
Animals aren't persons.
sad
Reminder that Koko was pseudoscience
I may have a feasible explanation for the intelligence of these animals. If you are an Atheist you won't believe me. However, there is only one type of Spirit. Every living thing on this Earth all have the same kind of Spirit. Those Spirits all have the same learning ability for attention to and retention of the knowledge they glean from their experiences they go through on this earth. EVERY LIVING THING on this Earth gathers and retains what they have learned in their life. In the Bible the Book of Revelations states that when Jesus returns to harvest us that ". . . even the very ROCKS shall sing." Picture all of the big boulders on every mountainside lifting up their voices in worship to welcome Him. So even THEY must have a Spirit in order to be able to SING. We as Humans have learned so much since our existence on this Earth began and yet, because of that statement, there is so much more that we still have yet to learn.
Give my dad to the Lowry Park Zoo, That is closer to me!
Princess Rapunzel I understand how you feel. But I’d like to find one farther away. 🤣
Give Chantek to me!
Chantek is My dad,
Chantek is My Dad.
Grace Kane said Donald Trump
i'm really Chantek's daughter
The fuq is a "Orangutan Person" :D
An orangutan that has been taught to communicate and act like a human.
***** Well, in fact every orangutan is an orangutan person since they all are unique individuals with their own feelings, thoughts and personality. It also applies to many other species. We, as humans, like to think the word "person" only applies to a human being, but we're wrong.
#longliveindividualism
Not very many people are going to read your whole long-@ss comment. Please shorten it Almagesto :D
Chantek is my Dad
it's not a child
RIP Chantek