Ape trainers at Miami’s Jungle Island are using a unique new approach to communicating with their favorite captives, helping orangutans learn to say what they mean using a special piece of software for Apple’s iPad.

Linda Jacobs, a volunteer trainer, told The Associated Press this week that apes enjoy communicating with humans but simply do not have the biological equipment to speak up for themselves.

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“So, this gives them a way of letting us know what they know, what they’re capable of, what they’d like to have,” Jacobs said, adding that one day she hopes to have a more sturdy tablet the apes can use without assistance to interact with zoo visitors.

A similar project at the Bonobo Hope Great Ape Trust Sanctuary in Des Moines, Iowa hopes to accomplish the same feat by using robotic ape surrogates that can be controlled from a touch-screen device.

Buena Vista University Professor Ken Schweller even said that he’d like to equip the robo-apes with water guns so the real apes can spray visitors remotely.

This video is from The Associated Press, published Wednesday, May 9, 2012.

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Photo: Screenshot via AP.