April 01, 2014
Talk to focus on chimpanzee communication
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- A lecture on chimpanzee communication postponed by a winter storm will take place next week at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Mary Lee Jensvold is director of the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute of Central Washington University and associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and Museum Studies. She will discuss the correlation of her conversations with chimpanzees and what it means with how humans view the natural world.
Jensvold will present “Conversations with Chimpanzees: Transforming our View of Nature,” at 7:30 p.m., April 11. The lecture in Morris Library’s John C. Guyon Auditorium is free and open to the public.
This event is rescheduled from Dec. 6, 2013.
The Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute promotes conservation and argues for recognizable primate intellect. Two chimpanzees that are part of the institute are proficient in American Sign Language. Jensvold has been working with them since 1986 to learn more about animal intelligence and communication.
The SIU chapter of Sigma Xi, a national scientific research society, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, and the SIU Graduate School are event sponsors, along with assistance from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.