"The death of a possible genius was reported this week. Ai, a chimpanzee who was born in West Africa and came to the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University in Japan when she was a year old, has died of natural causes at the age of 49. They say she was surrounded by the staff who have known her. Ai, by the way, means love in Japanese."
"That was when she was five. At six and a half, she began learning the alphabet, and soon, Matsuzawa says, she "was able to discriminate between all 26 uppercase letters. At the age of seven and a half, Ai had learned the lexigrams for apple banana, carrot, cabbage," and more. She could eventually identify more than 100 Japanese Kanji characters and 11 different colors."
"In 1989, Ai slipped out of her cage and picked up a key to open the cages of Akira, another research chimp, and their friend Doudou, an orangutan. An escapade, by the way, with all the makings of a primate heist film: Ai's Three? It is always hazardous to try to put yourself into someone else's skin, human or primate, but I like to think that Ai's restless intelligence made her curious about the world beyond the confines of her research institute."
Ai was born in West Africa and arrived at the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University at age one. Ai died of natural causes at 49, surrounded by longtime staff. Ai learned to label numbers at five, began the alphabet at six and a half and discriminated all 26 uppercase letters. By seven and a half Ai had learned lexigrams for items such as apple, banana, carrot and cabbage, later recognizing over 100 Japanese Kanji characters and 11 colors. Ai painted and drew, contributed artwork reproduced on a scarf, and in 1989 slipped out to unlock fellow apes' cages, demonstrating curiosity and problem-solving.
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