Chantek’s not your everyday orangutan
UTC professor visits campus to tell of her primate child’s communication skills
By Allison White
August 28, 2009 (Originally published September 24, 2001)
Source: http://www.mtsusidelines.com/2.3115/chantek-s-not-your-everyday-orangutan-1.323601
Ever chatted with an orangutan?
Lyn Miles has made it her life’s work to do just that.
She will talk about her relationship with Chantek, a 23-year-old orangutan who can communicate using at least 150 words in American Sign Language, during her visit to campus Wednesday as part of Anthropologica: Anthropology in Action, a lecture series sponsored by the department of sociology and anthropology in cooperation with the Middle Tennessee Anthropology Society.
Anthropologica will present two anthropologists this semester, Miles being the first.
The lecture series intends to present anthropology in a real-world setting and is targeted to a diverse audience.
Miles’ Project Chantek not only makes for interesting anecdotes but also presents findings that have expanded scientists’ knowledge of primate communicative abilities and intelligence relative to humans.
Miles raised Chantek from the age of nine months in a trailer on the University of Tennessee Chattanooga campus, where she’s an anthropology professor. Chantek stayed with her for nine years, and Miles raised him much like a human child. She toilet-trained him, gave him chores and an allowance and regularly took him to McDonald’s.
In 1986 Chantek’s living situation had to be re-evaluated. His size and strength were becoming too much for Miles’ trailer, and he broke out several times. He would regularly steal candy from UTC’s bookstore. He also reportedly scared a female student.
To Miles’ disappointment, he was sent back to the Yerkes Regional Primate Center in Atlanta, where he was born.
Yerkes had other plans for him. The scientists there wanted him to sign less and, in essence, “put the animal back in him,” as Miles put it.
They restricted Miles’ visitation of Chantek, and an hour’s visit in 1995 was the last time she saw him for two years.
Miles was unable to see him again until his transfer to Zoo Atlanta in 1997.
Time failed to make Chantek forget her. He moved her to tears by calling her “Mother Lynn.” He then signaled for a jail break, signing “get the key,” referring to the key to his cage.
Chantek has certainly exceeded everyone’s expectations, with the possible exception of Miles. She “adopted” Chantek with the intention of proving just how intelligent primates are.
Unlike other scientists who were doing similar experiments in a lab setting, Miles wanted to place a primate in a truly human environment – her home – to explore communication in a cultural context.
It worked. By the time Chantek was 10 years old, he had reached the cognitive level of a five-year-old and the linguistic ability of a two-year-old.
“Chantek comprehends hundreds, if not thousands, of words of English,” Miles told Yahoo! Chat visitors last year.
Chantek was the first orangutan to do a live Web chat.
He also proved to not be randomly responding to stimuli, which has been the situation with some signing primates in the past.
“I found that Chantek initiated up to 60 percent of communication,” Miles said. “I call it pragmatic anthropomorphism in teaching language to Chantek. I’m not teaching it to him in a vacuum.”
Miles said she first learned that Chantek could understand English when he heard the sound of a cat on the car radio and signed “cat.”
Chantek has displayed other human attributes as well.
“Chantek will clearly show a range of emotions we can identify,” Miles said. “He will pout, sit and be very quiet. He’ll even put his back to us to show us how he’s feeling.”
He also lies.
“Chantek tells at least three lies a week,” Miles said. “He may ask me to eat something, and he’ll tell me he’s finished, but he’s actually hidden it.”
Reporter Julie Cohen of Geographical, a magazine published in the United Kingdom, learned of Chantek’s tendency not only to lie but to spare feelings when she saw him pour out a bottle of water she had given him.
“He only likes Naya water,” Miles told Cohen, “but he pretends to drink other brands to keep people happy.”
Chantek is also an avid painter. One of his works has been displayed in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C..
He likes to play games like Simon Says and Keep Away, and he can use about seven tools.
Chantek has even been the star of his own TV documentary. The Discovery Channel’s Animal Planet debuted the hour-long program titled, “They Call Him Chantek” last year.
UTC granted Miles paid leave to do the film. She returned to the university last spring and is teaching again.
Miles is president of the Chantek Foundation, which strives to understand orangutan communication and intelligence. The foundation aims to raise funds for a primate cultural center where those like Chantek can live normal lives while surrounded by symbols, tools and computers.
“I and other scientists have a vision of a place where he and other primates can live, learning sign and living with each other and other primates,” Miles said.
Zoo Atlanta is hoping to build the center soon, which also will allow the public to view the primates through glass. UTC’s University Echo reported in April that the Chantek Foundation plans to hold a fundraiser next year to raise money for the center and for further research.
Miles received her doctorate in anthropology at the University of Connecticut in 1978. She is a professor in the department of sociology, anthropology and geography at UTC. She teaches courses in primate behavior, physical anthropology, language and cognition.
She is co-editor of Anthropomorphism, Anecdote, and Animals, as well as The Mentality of Gorillas and Orangutans. In addition, she has won a Student Government Association Outstanding Professor Award and a College of Arts and Sciences Research Prize.
“My Life with Chantek” will be presented Wednesday from 1:30 to 3 p.m. in Dining Room C of the James Union Building.
