--- title: 'Talking' Ape: Orangutan Uses Vowel and Consonant Sounds description: Researchers have found that at least one orangutan living in captivity can produce vowel and consonant sounds to communicate canonical: https://time.com/3675945/talking-orangutan-planet-of-the-apes-indianapolis-zoo/ author: Helen Regan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-21T07:47:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:44:19.451Z article:section: Science og:title: Did Someone Say 'Planet of the Apes'? og:description: Because scientists have found an orangutan that can kind of talk. og:url: https://time.com/3675945/talking-orangutan-planet-of-the-apes-indianapolis-zoo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Did Someone Say 'Planet of the Apes'? twitter:description: Because scientists have found an orangutan that can kind of talk. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Orangutan Has Learned to Talk (Kind Of) by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Jan 21, 2015 7:47 AM UTC by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Jan 21, 2015 7:47 AM UTC Researchers from Indianapolis Zoo and the University of Amsterdam have [found](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/01/20/can-this-orangutan-talk-watch-video-and-decide/22074437/) that at least one orangutan living in captivity can produce sounds that qualify as “faux speech.” The orangutan in question is 50-year-old Tilda, a Bornean female who resides at the Cologne Zoo in Germany. Researchers have [discovered](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0116136) that she can produce consonant and vowel sounds in order to communicate with her keepers at feeding time, _USA Today_ reports. When she sees her keepers, Tilda claps her hands, emits a series of clicks or produces low guttural sounds. While the rapid sounds are unintelligible to humans, researchers were surprised to learn that the speechlike rhythms are deliberate. “\[It is\] perhaps one of the best pieces of evidence thus far that great apes are capable of vocal learning, that is, that they exert sufficient control over all the elements of their vocal tract in sufficient degree to learn how to produce new calls from humans,” said Adriano Lameira, the study’s lead author. Scientists now question what are the learning processes involved and whether other orangutans could master similar skills. \[[_USA Today_](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/01/20/can-this-orangutan-talk-watch-video-and-decide/22074437/)\] 'Talking' Ape: Orangutan Uses Vowel and Consonant Sounds ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3675945/talking-orangutan-planet-of-the-apes-indianapolis-zoo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3675945/talking-orangutan-planet-of-the-apes-indianapolis-zoo/"},"headline":"This Orangutan Has Learned to Talk (Kind Of)","datePublished":"2015-01-21T07:47:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:44:19.451Z","description":"But don't worry, Rise of the Planet of the Apes isn't about to happen anytime soon","url":"https://time.com/3675945/talking-orangutan-planet-of-the-apes-indianapolis-zoo/","keywords":["animals","Research","Speech"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Helen Regan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/helen-regan/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/animals/","name":"animals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3675945/talking-orangutan-planet-of-the-apes-indianapolis-zoo/","name":"This Orangutan Has Learned to Talk (Kind Of)"}}]}] ```