Two old videos show chimpanzees making sounds that listeners often hear as “mama.” A 2024 study found phonetic evidence that the animals could produce speech-like syllables. It does not show that chimpanzees speak fluently, understand the word as humans do, or hold conversations.
What the 2024 study found
In a paper published in Scientific Reports on 25 July 2024, Axel G. Ekström, Charlotte Gannon, Jens Edlund, Steven Moran and Adriano R. Lameira analyzed archival recordings of two chimpanzees, Johnny and Renata. They examined the sounds acoustically and phonetically, then asked online listeners unfamiliar with the recordings’ origins to categorize them. Read the study in Scientific Reports.
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The researchers report consonant-to-vowel contrasts involving the voice, jaw and lips. Listeners most often categorized the sounds as “ma-ma.” Together, the analysis and listening experiment support the conclusion that these chimpanzees produced syllable-like vocal sequences that people can perceive as speech-like. Listener perception does not establish what the animals intended or understood.
Who are Johnny and Renata?
Johnny
Johnny appears in home video recorded while he lived at Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, Florida. In the clip, a woman asks, “Can you say mama?” The study reports that Johnny died in 2007. Its authors also note a comment from the video account holder saying Johnny called everyone “Mama” and that the sound was reinforced with preferred food. That is reported context, not a controlled experimental finding.
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Renata
Renata appears in a 1962 Universal Studios Universal Newsreel segment titled “Now Hear This! Italians Unveil Talking Chimp.” Her handler appears to tap her chin as a cue. The researchers say they do not know how she acquired the utterance or what happened to her later.
What “speaking” means in these videos
The evidence is about vocal and articulatory capacity: the researchers argue that chimpanzees can produce speech-like syllabic sequences. It does not establish a human-like vocabulary, grammar, syntax or conversation. The study challenges the strong claim that chimpanzees lack the vocal motor capacity for any syllabic speech-like production; it does not show that they have mastered human speech.
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Chimpanzees communicate using vocalizations and gestures, and research has documented vocal events alongside other communicative signals. That broader communication does not mean ordinary chimpanzee calls are human words. A sound that resembles “mama” to a listener is not, by itself, evidence that the animal intended the human meaning.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the footage cannot settle
These are archival recordings of two individual chimpanzees in human-managed settings, not a representative sample of wild chimpanzees. The researchers did not record the animals under experimental control, and they say the footage cannot establish how either chimpanzee learned the sounds. The visible prompting and reported reinforcement make cueing or reinforcement plausible, but the learning history remains unknown.
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The paper’s authors conclude that “in the absence of direct data-driven examination, great ape vocal production capacities have been underestimated.” Their finding is significant as evidence about possible vocal production, not proof that chimpanzees talk like people.
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How to assess claims about “talking animals”
- Speech sounds versus signs or symbols: These videos concern vocal production, not sign-language or symbol use.
- Phonetic evidence versus resemblance: The researchers analyzed sound structure rather than relying only on viewers hearing a familiar word.
- Syllables versus language: Producing a speech-like syllable does not demonstrate vocabulary, syntax or conversation.
- Archival footage versus controlled testing: The recordings provide evidence of what these two animals vocalized, but not a controlled account of why or how they did so.
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