Baby apes may be coming to Iowa, home to the country's only bonobo research center

When 37-year-old Kanzi wants a snack, he points to the symbol for peanut on a specialized keyboard that hangs on the wall.

When his caregiver doesn't respond right away, he points again with more enthusiasm.

Kanzi is a bonobo who lives at the Ape Cognition & Conservation Initiative, a Jurassic Park-esque research facility located on 230 acres of riverine forest on Des Moines' southeast side. The endangered ape was the first of his species to learn English and is considered one of the most language-proficient bonobos in the world.

The Ape Cognition & Conservation Initiative is hoping to bring more bonobos like Kanzi to central Iowa in an effort to save the dying species. And at the same time, they will work to learn more about the evolutionary origins of humans by studying the apes' language, cognitive abilities and behaviors.

There are only 93 bonobos living in captivity in the United States. Five of them are in Des Moines, brought here in 2004 by a wealthy philanthropist who founded what was then called the Great Ape Trust.

Now, the Ape Cognition & Conservation Initiative is looking to expand its colony and welcome more central Iowa visitors to learn about the center's research and the plight of great apes in the wild.

'They're apes and they're the boss'

Every day at the Ape Cognition & Conservation Initiative is different. It's up to the bonobos what they want to do.

They let their caretakers know when they want to work, when they want to sleep, what they want to eat and who they want to hang out with.

"Kanzi really likes to work and he's really motivated," said Julie Burroughs, attending veterinarian. "Teco, the young one, has a shorter attention span like most children his age."

(Teco is 7 years old and is the only bonobo to be born in Iowa.)

The bonobos communicate using hand gestures, vocalization, and a lexigram keyboard — a colorful grid that has more than 500 symbols that represent words like grape, go, sleep, and look.

On top of that, Kanzi understands 3,000 words. Researchers in 1993 found his English comprehension matched that of a 2 1/2- to 3-year-old human child.

"He's an absolute rock star. He knows all the symbols," said Amanda Epping, research coordinator at the Ape Cognition & Conservation Initiative. "He is really special."

Apes work to match words to photos

On a cold spring day last week, Kanzi and Teco took turns matching words to photos, much like the children's game Memory.

The apes sit on an elevated platform in front of a touchscreen monitor that mirrors what Epping sees on her computer. They're separated by a solid pane of glass that has one tiny opening.

Teco, the 7-year-old, is shown a photo of an apricot on the screen. He's then asked to find the same photo of the apricot from three images.

When he gets the answer right, a happy noise sounds and he's given a grape through that tiny opening. When he gets the answer wrong, there's a buzzing noise and he moves on to the next question.

He will eventually graduate to Kanzi's level. Kanzi is given a spoken word and is asked to touch the corresponding picture. He, too, gets a grape for every right answer.

The "match to sample" game shows researchers how apes understand and comprehend language. It's one they will likely work on their whole lives.

Des Moines' team plans to update the 25-year-old study on Kanzi's language comprehension. They want to figure out what words he still knows and what he's learned since.

"We're trying to follow up that work with other apes," said Jared Taglialatela, director of the Ape Cognition & Conservation Initiative. "But we also want to know, was it Kanzi's exposure to human language that did this, or are we tapping into something that bonobos can already do?"

The mission of the Ape Cognition & Conservation Initiative is to study the evolutionary origins of humans by making comparisons to the bonobos — humans' closest genetic relatives.

Essentially, they want to know what makes humans unique.

"They share a lot of characteristics with us," Taglialatela said. "We're comparing what we can do with what our closest evolutionary relatives can do, so we can draw some parallels on what the ancestors looked like and what set humans on this path where we can talk on cell phones and read newspapers and use tools."

'The next 3 years will be very exciting'

New research subjects could be born in Des Moines in little more than two years.

The nonprofit has applied for accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which would give them the authority to breed with other captive bonobos in the United States.

"The bonobo captive capacity is met, so in order to sustain and even grow the captive population, space is needed," Taglialatela said. "And we have space."

Without major construction, the current facility could house another 12 bonobos. Renovation of another building, which used to have orangutans, could house 20 others.

The Ape Cognition & Conservation Initiative expects to hear back on its accreditation early next year.

Mating could happen as early as summer 2019, and the first new babies could arrive in Des Moines in 2020.

On top of the species survival plan, the Ape Cognition & Conservation Initiative is hoping to upgrade its lobby and viewing areas so it can better host educational tour groups, from kindergarten to master's students.

The organization recently started a GoFundMe campaign to raise $7,000 for upgrades to its bonobo visitor experience. The goal is to get the community more involved in a program that may not be particularly well-known in Des Moines, Taglialatela said.

Why are the bonobos here?

The Great Ape Trust was founded in 2004 by local businessman and philanthropist Ted Townsend who funded the construction of the facility, 4200 Evergreen Ave., and its research.

He dreamed of having the only North America facility with all four great apes — bonobos, orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas. It became home to a colony of 10 bonobos and several orangutans.

But the organization later folded after Townsend pulled his money out and its researchers failed to secure grants. Its director was also the center of allegations of neglect, made by 11 of its former employees. The center later flooded, and they could not afford to continue on.

The Ape Cognition & Conservation Initiative took over in 2013 under the guidance of Taglialatela, a professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, and Bill Hopkins, a professor at Georgia State University.

Both were able to secure funding from their universities to form the nonprofit, and they now work with colleagues from around the globe who are interested in studying Des Moines' colony.

They rely on research grants, as well as donations from the community and corporate partnerships. Hy-Vee and Anderson Erickson Dairy provide the primates' food.

It costs about $350,000 a year to operate the facility and care for the bonobos.

See Des Moines' bonobos on PBS

Documentary filmmakers with PBS' new "NOVA Wonders" series recently spent time with Taglialatela and Des Moines' bonobos. The six-part series explores "the biggest questions on the frontiers of science" and life, according to PBS.

Kanzi and the Ape Cognition & Conservation Initiative will appear on the first episode, "What Are Animals Saying?", airing at 8 p.m. April 25 on PBS (Iowa Public Television).