Kanzi's Teacher, Mentor, and Friend

Dr. Sue

Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh is a world-known scientist.  Born in 1946, "Dr. Sue" graduated from Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri, in 1970, majoring in psychology.

Intriqued by the development of thinking in children, Dr. Sue discovered the "Chimp Farm," at the University of Oklahoma.  There, at the Institute for Primate Studies, research was being done on whether language is something that only humans can acquire.

Reading Together

Dr. Sue received a masters degree, followed by a doctorate from the University of Oklahoma.   She then joined the Language Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia, at Georgia State University.

For thirty years Dr. Sue studied language, especially the ability of the bonobo great apes to acquire language, and this is how she met Kanzi.

Dr. Sue and Kanzi

Since then they have been nearly inseparable, with Dr. Sue learning even more from Kanzi than he has learned from her.

In 2005 both Dr. Sue and Kanzi came to the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa.  Several other bonobos have joined Kanzi.

Dr. Sue has spent nearly 24 hours a day living and working with the family of bonobos at the Great Ape Trust as the Director of Bonobo Research.

Dr. Sue has published many articles and books, as well as given speeches about her work with Kanzi.

To find out more about Kanzi and Dr. Sue, click on this link:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bonobos/kanzi.html.

"Great Ape Trust | Scientists' Biographies, Fields, Savage-Rumbaugh, Rumbaugh, Swartz, Schweller, Pedersen, Bios, Halgren, Evans." Great Ape Trust | Bonobos, Orangutans and the Study of Ape Language, Tools and Intelligence. Web. 23 Jan. 2011. http://www.greatapetrust.org/science/scientists-biographies/sue-savage-rumbaugh.

"Ape Language Pioneer Savage-Rumbaugh Receives Honorary Ph.D. from Alma Mater." EurekAlert! - Science News. Web. 23 Jan. 2011. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-05/gato-alp052708.php.

"The My Hero Project - Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh." The MY HERO Project. Web. 23 Jan. 2011. http://myhero.com/go/hero.asp?hero=sue_savage_rumbaugh.