| Three paintings that were created by a chimpanzee named Congo have been sold at a London auction to an American buyer. The buyer spent a total of $26,250 for the paintings by the chimp. The paintings went for many times over the estimated prices. Congo's paintings went under the hammer in a sale that included works by human painters as well, including: French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French cubist Fernand Leger and US pop artist Andy Warhol. The buyer of the chimp's paintings, Howard Hong, said he was a great fan of modern and contemporary painting.
Monkeys, in a broad sense, are all representatives of the primates order.
Monkeys or anthropods or higher primates - in much narrow sense, are those kinds, which are related to obsolete suborder of present day monkeys (Simiae) or anthrropods (Anthropoidea), which is opposite to suborder of semi-monkeys (Prosimiae). They differ from semi-monkeys by their mode of daily life, complex behavior, and with an inclination towards vegetarianism. Many morphological features are associated with these аnthropods, for example, the complex structure of brain. The suborder is divided into two groups: New World (Platyrrhini) - monkeys of Central and Southern America and Old World monkeys (Catarrhini) - monkeys of the Old world.
In the new system, the present monkeys are divided into infra order ape-like and combines with the tarsier in the suborder of arid nose primates (Haplorhini) and remaining - into the suborder of the wet nose primates (Strepsirrhini).
The language of monkeys:
Many sound signals, which have meanings on various happenings in the surroundings exist in a monkey's language. There is evidence to believe that the sounds with the meaning "rain" exist in the lexicon of a monkey's language.
Kenyan monkeys, which are called the "green cats" local residents, differ by their amazing ability to communicate by making sounds. American and European scientists (P.Marler and others) observed that rhythmic clicking means "leopard", a series of fast whistling sounds – "a snake is creeping on the ground", thus, the distinction in sound signals is seen for a venomous snake and a python. Separate sounds are designated for hunter birds, baboons and people. In their vocabulary, there are sounds for an "unarmed person" and a "person with a rifle or binoculars". The reaction of monkeys on reproducing recorded sounds is characteristic even in the absence of real objects: screams on seeing a leopard - climbing on the tree, screams on seeing an eagle - looking upwards, making sounds on seeing snake - while looking downwards.
In the 1970s, thanks to G.V. Gershuni's research, it was established that there are a set of vocal sounds for monkeys and it was found that many sound elements are similar to the phonetic elements of human speech - vowels, consonants and syllables. It was also found that the emotional meaning of the vocal sounds of monkeys almost completely coincides with that of humans.
Communication with humans:
The training of monkeys to reproduce human speech did not yield much success as their vocal apparatus (including the speech control centers of the brain) has a different structure and are not intended for reproducing the complex sound combinations of human speech. But monkeys can learn visual signals (for example, the language of the deaf and dumb), as in the case of the Washoe chimpanzee.
Washоe was trained by American zoo-psychologists – the couple Allen and Beatrix Gardner and within some months, Washoe learned many word signs and later - about 300. It used the reserve vocabulary creatively, for example, the desire to open a refrigerator and eat was expressed by such signs:"opened refrigerator - eat - drink". Many sentences were compiled by Washoe itself, such as " Give me tickling" - "tickle me". Aversion to others was expressed through the word "dirty". Washoe preferred to call a duck a "water-bird" instead of a specialized word.
The first baby of Washot died soon after birth. The mother sat near him for a long time asking in sign language "baby", "baby"in anticipation of a reply. Soon another baby "Sequoyah" was born to Washoe, which, according to the experimenter's idea , Washoe should teach it sign language.
The gorilla Koko, which was trained in sign language by the American researcher F.Patterson, quickly mastered 375 signs and expressed them not only in daily requirements but also complex feelings and emotions. Abstract concepts such as "boredom", "imagination" and past and future time were known to him.
Lana the chimpanzee which studied nearly 60 lexigrams on computers, can form phrases with a request to switch on a film projector, so as to see a film on the life of monkeys, switch on a tape recorder and so on. Monkeys use their vocabulary very creatively. The chimpanzee Sarah arranged sentences from plastic "Chinese" letters - from top to bottom.
Anthropoids or hominoids or anthromorphoids (latin. Hominoidea or Anthropomorphidae) - are a superfamily of narrow-nosed monkeys (Catarrhina), having a similarity with respect to human body structure. |
