Monkeys!

We all like monkeys. Face it, they're mini people. They dance, play instruments, know sign language, and even help people with disabilities. Monkeys can do a lot to help people. Depending on how well you train a monkey, they can do anything you want. How closely related to humans can they be?

For example there's a guy, named Ned, who's paralyzed. He's 23 and became paralyzed from a car accident. To become paralyzed the spinal cord or other nervous system cells are damaged enough to prevent action potentials from traversing it. When these cells are damaged, they can not be re-grown like skin cells. When Ned drops his TV remote, his helper monkey Sharon is trained to pick it up when Ned asks for it. "She is going to allow him to have a world outside of his wheelchair and his bed," says Ned's mother Ellen Rogers. (Click me for more stories!)
Monkeys are used so much, that someone actually created an organization, that you can help out. (Wanna see their website?) The most common monkey to be used for a helper is a Capuchin Monkey. They're hands are similar to ours, and they are extremely smart. Although the organization Helping Hands trains these monkeys and uses them as helpers, they do not advertise them as pets. Their brain closely relates to ours to the point where they become "evil little people" at the age of 5 because, that's the age that they mature. Yes, they're extremely cute and fluffy; but they have the ability to rip your face off if you make them mad enough.
They use Capuchin Monkeys in movies a lot. There's an older movie called Monkey Trouble, if you remember that movie you're awesome! In the movie the two main characters are a girl and this little monkey. They trained this monkey to do certain things at the exact point in time they needed him to do these tasks. He was an evil little monkey in the movie, and that's how they behave in the wild. This type of monkey can be trained to do anything, like put a DVD into a DVD player, turn to a different station on the radio, turn a handle on a music box and dance to it, or even climb on the top shelf to get a box of crackers. Monkeys are smart, some smart enough to learn sign language.



I believe a lot of you have at least heard of Koko the Gorilla. She knows sign language. Gorillas play, act, and maybe even think just like humans. Sure, they walk differently and have more hair than us, but they're like people too! Koko is the prime example as to how gorillas are so closely related to humans.

Koko originally started out as a project. She has a working vocabulary of over 1,000 sig

n. She also understands approximately 2,000 words of spoken English. Her main human companion(Dr. Penny Patterson), tested her IQ and the results came back that Koko's IQ is between 70 and 95. The average human IQ is 100. That's very impressive for an animal. Koko initiates most of the conversations she has, and creates sentences and statements tha

t are averaged to between three to six words. Koko enjoys painting wonderful pictures. She painted

her pet fledging blue jay from memory once. Below you'll see an interview between her , Dr, Penny, and an FCM member, to the right you'll see Koko and Dr. Penny.




FCM Question to Koko: You use a lot of red in your paintings. Is red your favorite color to paint with? Why do you like it?

Dr. Penny Patterson: Why is your favorite color red?
Koko: There. (pointing to her doll's pink dress) Lip. (Koko

rubs her lip and her doll's lip)
PP: Oh, because lips are red!K: That red red. (pointing to red flower on fabric)
K: Nipple there Nipple. (pointing to the piece of paper Penny has with the interview questions on it)
PP: Yes, questions from people. (Koko often uses the word nipple to mean people.)




Sometimes she has trouble answering or Dr. Penny has a hard time reading Koko's signs, this is still remarkable. There's another gorilla named Michael who paints pictures, and talks too. Here's an interview with the same FCM member, Michael, and Barbara Weller.




Michael Painting.







FCM: Has Koko made any comments that relate to dreaming, and what happens when you die?

Koko has sometimes signed unusual things in the mornings which Penny thinks relate to dreams. I don't have any specific examples of these, but here are some conversations Michael had with his caregivers regarding dreams.


With Barbara Weller 3/8/81
BW: How did you sleep?
M: Sleep do pull-out-hair
BW: Pull-out-hair?
M: Pull-out-hair
BW: Bad night? Any Dreams? What happened?
M: Out teeth sorry
*( Mike had a disturbing dream that affected his sleep. By his statement it is possible he dreamt about his teeth falling out. This is a fairly common theme in human dreams where the loss of teeth symbolizes an actual loss or fear deep in the sub-conscience.)

With BW 3/10/81
(Lisa brings some body lotion for Mike)
BW: Where want oil?
M: Feet
(BW squirts some lotion on Mike's feet and he rubs it in)
BW: Any dreams last night? Dreams?
M: Why. Why do you trouble quiet?
BW: Any dreams last night?
M: Dream cat bird eat taste
BW: Oh dear, bad dream about cats eating birds?
M: Sad. Cat devil
*( Another dream description of a cat eating a bird. Especially interesting because he uses the word "Dream" in his recounting of it.)




As you can see, these gorillas are so human-like, its fascinating. For more interviews with Michael or Koko, click here, also you can see more of their paintings here!




Now, do you believe monkeys have the ability to become as smart as humans? Or will they forever be one step below us? Why?