Dr. Shumaker has worked with Azy for over ten years.
Dr. Shumaker works with Indah (who has since died) on communicating with symbols.
As a young orangutan Azy was small enough to sit on Dr. Shumaker's lap when they first met. Ten years later Dr. Shumaker can sit on Azy's lap.
Dr. Rob Shumaker has been studying orangutans for more than 20 years. He was the former coordinator of the Orangutan Language Project at the Smithsonian Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. and is now continuing his research into the cognitive ability of orangutans at the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa.
Animalplanet.com sat down with Dr. Shumaker to discuss his work and found out that his research is based on respect, friendship and the willingness of individual orangutans to participate in the exploration of human-animal communication. Listen to the interview below.
For more on this project and other research involving great apes visit the Great Ape Trust.
How long have you been working with great apes?
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How do you chose the orangutans that you will be working with?
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How do you begin the processes of working with orangutans?
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Your research uses symbols to communicate with orangutans. How does this work?
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View the symbols used by Dr. Shumaker in his work with orangutans. (PDF)
What are some of the tasks that you use in working with orangutans in your research?
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What's the status of orangutans in the wild?
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Besides understanding the cognitive ability of orangutans what other reasons do you think your research is so important?
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What's it like working with orangutans on a daily basis?
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