Washoe (Chimpanzee)

Hearing. Captured from the wild in West Africa originally for an Air Force experiment, she was instead raised by Drs. Beatrix T. and R. Allen Gardner as if she were a human child, using American Sign Language for her to communicate with humans. (Since her exact birth date is unknown, they celebrated her adoption date, June 21, 1966, as her "birthday".) Her name came from Washoe County, NV, where the Project Washoe experiment began; later the Project, and Washoe, moved to Oklahoma (1970) and then Washington state (1980). She was the first great ape, and first animal of any kind, to learn and use a human language, preceding the better-known gorilla Koko (q.v.). Later, she helped teach the chimpanzee version of ASL to her "adopted son" Loulis and to three other chimps, Dar, Moja, and Tatu. She appears never to have mated and had babies, though Project Washoe had hoped she would, so it could be seen if she would pass on the sign language to her offspring.