The genius chimpanzee who mastered letters and numbers has died at the age of 49.
At an advanced age for a chimpanzee, the female chimp, who received extensive media coverage since her birth in West Africa, passed away due to organ failure and age-related illnesses. She possessed extraordinary abilities, helping researchers understand chimpanzee cognition and shedding light on human brain development.
The chimpanzee Ai, named for the Japanese word for “love,” passed away in Japan at the age of 49. The Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University stated that Ai participated in studies on perception, learning, and memory that advanced scientific understanding of primate intelligence.
Ai, along with her son Ayumu, recognized letters in both Chinese and English, and her abilities were the subject of academic research.
Beyond her knowledge of Japanese and English, Ai could identify numbers from 0 to 9 and eleven colors.
Ai’s intelligence was demonstrated through various tests. In one, she correctly matched colors pink and purple to their equivalents in the Chinese writing system. In another, when shown an apple, she selected geometric shapes on a computer screen to create a “virtual apple.” Her advanced cognitive abilities drew significant attention from researchers and placed her at the center of numerous studies and media programs.
Ai arrived at Kyoto University in 1977, and in 2000 she gave birth to her son Ayumu, whose skills attracted attention in studies on knowledge transfer between parents and children.
Ai loved to draw from a young age. In 2013, she created a painting that was presented to the university president. About four years later, this painting appeared on a silk scarf given as a gift to Dr. Jane Goodall, the primatologist who passed away at the age of 91 in October of the previous year.
According to the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University, studies examining Ai’s intelligence helped create an experimental framework for understanding the chimpanzee brain and provided a crucial basis for examining human brain development. “Ai was extremely curious and actively participated in these studies. She revealed new aspects of chimpanzee consciousness,” the institute stated.