Nyota (Bonobo)

Nyota
William M. Fields with Nyota
Born	1998 Georgia State University
Parents	P-suke (father) Panbanisha (mother)
Relatives	Nathen (brother) Kanzi (uncle) Matata (grandmother)

Nyota (pronounced en-yota) (born 1998), also known by the lexigram , is a bonobo. Nyota was born at the Language Research Center at Georgia State University. His mother is Panbanisha and his father was P-suke.

Nyota's name means "Star" in Lingala, a language from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa.^[1] Nyota was reared by Panbanisha and Kanzi with primatologists Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and William M. Fields.^[2]

As a precocious youngster in 2004, Nyota is instrumental to researchers investigating the cross-generational effects of language and culture in a second-generation bonobo reared in a bi-cultural environment. On Monday, April 25th 2005 he, his brother Nathan and mother Panbanisha moved to the Great Ape Trust in Iowa. His father, P-suke (died July 7, 2006 in Iowa), uncle Kanzi, grandmother Matata, and other relatives were also moved to the Trust.

References

1. ^ Meet Nyota, Great Ape Trust, Des Moines, Iowa
2. ^ Living with Nyota the Bonobo, NPR, July 8, 2006. Retrieved 2010-04-15.

External links

• Great Ape Trust of Iowa