ATLANTA – An orangutan who communicated with researchers using sign-language has died at an Atlanta zoo. Chantek was 39.
On its website, Zoo Atlanta says Chantek died Monday. The cause of death isn’t known, but the zoo says veterinarians had been treating him for progressive heart disease.
Chantek came to the zoo in 1997 at the age of 19. He was born at Atlanta’s Yerkes Language Research Center and spent nine years living with researchers at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. Researchers raised him like a human child and taught him at least 150 words in American Sign Language. He was taught other human skills such as using a bathroom and cleaning his room.
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga anthropology professor Lyn Miles expressed her grief over Chantek’s passing, which she calls “devastating.”
Miles worked with Chantek throughout his entire life, and said that Chattanooga was always home to Chantek. She said she has fond memories of the ape interacting with students, playing games and riding his bicycle on the UTC campus before he was brought to Atlanta.
“We changed the picture of science forever,” Miles said. “What we learned from working with Chantek really changed what we know about orangutans, and UTC should be honored for playing that role.”
Zoo Atlanta says Chantek was given a “naturalistic” living environment with other orangutans once he arrived there.
“The zoo felt the best thing for Chantek was to get him into an orangutan family,” Miles said. “Apparently at the zoo, like other orangutans, he developed heart disease. They don’t know the reason but a lot of orangutans get that in zoos, and he finally succumbed.”
Miles said she has gotten responses from all over the world since Chantek’s death and plans to hold a memorial service in the near future.
“It’s a great loss,” Miles said. “What I want his legacy to be is creating culture centers, where if apes are going to live in zoos, their whole lives will be based on navigation, problem-solving and tool-making, and the days of just going to look at some orangutan on a hill will be over.”
A post-mortem exam of the ape is scheduled to be performed.
Staff writer Kimberly Sebring contributed to this AP story.