Page 26 - Abacoa Community News - October '22

Page 26, Abacoa
Book Review

Ape House to learn more about as when, for example, Bonzi—the female head of the
these fascinating bonobo matriarchal society—is asking for coffee with a
By Nils A. Shapiro animals. When she lot of sugar. She signs: “Want candy coffee. Isabel go.
My plan was to review contacted the leading Hurry gimme.” It may be difficult for some readers to
a different book for this research institute, accept, but this is, according to Gruen, fact in the science
month’s column, but an odd the Great Ape Trust, of research with this species of great apes.
experience changed my she was told that she The important characters in the story include a
selection. I had just ordered would first have to do reporter, John Thigpen, who is fascinated by the bonobos,
online a newly published some studying about thinks highly of the project, is fully supportive of it
book on a subject of great linguistics in Toronto, and, truth be told, is kind of fascinated by the research
interest to me, a work of and then—believe it scientist, Isabel, herself, which serves to hint at a romantic
nonfiction that I am very or not, but true— she subplot, although he is happily married.
anxious to read and bring would have to get Suddenly, the laboratory is bombed, Isabel is seriously
to your attention, but which permission from the injured and the bonobos escape into neighboring trees.
will not be delivered to me for a week or longer. For some bonobos themselves Unlike chimpanzees, which have a violent streak when
reason I can’t explain, that new book stirred in me the in order to be able they reach maturity—making them dangerous to keep
memory of a novel that I read and loved many years ago. to visit them! After as pets, as many families have learned to their dismay—
So, I researched the computer files of my 150-plus past completing her homework, she put together a backpack bonobos experience the same shock, fear and confusion
Book Reviews—which are arranged chronologically, not that contained such goodies as bouncy balls, fleece that humans would feel when their world is torn asunder.
by book title—and finally, after more than an hour, came blankets, M&M’s, xylophones, Mr. Potato Head toys, etc., What happens next—who committed this horrific
upon the one for which I was searching. The following and asked the people at the Great Ape Trust to inform act; the way in which the bonobos become pawns in a
appeared in this column 11 years ago. I commend this the bonobos that she had some “surprises” for them. As greedy attempt to garner national TV ratings; Isabel’s
book to you again, wholeheartedly. You will understand Gruen relates it, the response she got was that “not only frantic efforts to rescue her apes from a dangerous and
how it relates to the new book that I am awaiting when were they letting me come in, they were insisting…. The life-threatening condition, and the role of the reporter in
I review that one in a future column. experience was astonishing—to this day I cannot think trying to help her—form the threads of this story that is
***** about it without getting goose bumps. You cannot have a beautifully written and very suspenseful. I was hooked
The common wisdom used to be that chimpanzees two-way conversation with a great ape, or even just look from the very beginning. And when you get to almost the
were the animal world’s closest relatives to humans. one straight in the eye, close up, without coming away last page, a box of facial tissues will come in very handy.
That is no longer the case. We now know that another changed…. I was told that the next day Panbanisha (one By then, those bonobos will have won a very special
species of great apes—bonobos, which are native to the of the bonobos) said to one of the scientists, “Where’s place in your heart, and you will be aching for them to
Congo—share a remarkable 98.7 percent of the human Sara? Build her nest. When’s she coming back?” be reunited with Isabel.
DNA. Though similar in size to chimpanzees, they differ After having had such an experience, it is no wonder Does all turn out well in the end or not? I would
somewhat in their physical features. Most importantly, that Gruen next used it to full advantage in writing the sign language the answer to you, but I don’t know
bonobos in research studies have learned to understand novel Ape House. This is the story of an animal behavioral how. Perhaps I am not as intelligent as a bonobo. You
the meanings of as many as 3,000 English words, and research scientist, Isabel Duncan, who has been working will have to read the book to find out. If Gruen had an
have actually been taught to communicate with humans in with a group of bonobos using the ASL communication. unforgettable experience actually meeting the bonobos, I
full two-way conversation using the same sign language Living under the auspices of a U.S. university under am one reviewer who has had an unforgettable experience
—American Sign Language (ASL)—that deaf humans excellent, positive and thoroughly humane conditions, reading her book.
use to communicate! the bonobos are extremely happy and well cared for, After all, 11 years later another completely different
Sara Gruen, author of Ape House, first heard about yet a small band of well-intentioned—but misguided— book reminded me how much I loved it.
bonobos in an email from her mother soon after completing protesters continue to march outside the laboratory walls.
her major bestselling book, Water for Elephants, (which The capability of bonobos to utilize sign language,
was made into a hit motion picture), and decided according to Gruen, is reflected throughout the book,

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