In 1967, Fouts' future took a decisive turn when he interviewed for a half-time assistantship position at the University of Nevada. Fouts had intended on a career working with nonverbal children and needed this job—teaching sign language to a chimp—to pay for graduate school.
In Norman, Oklahoma The Gardners initially used
operant conditioning to teach Washoe signs from
American Sign Language (ASL). Fouts, as their employee, was to reward Washoe with praise and treats and use a step-by-step process to get Washoe to sign correctly. But Fouts found more success by catering to Washoe's desire to imitate and socially connect. When introducing a new sign, he would gently guide the chimp toward making the proper gesture (manipulating her hands into the required shapes) while emphasizing social connection over "training." Fouts' method proved to be more effective in Washoe's acquisition of new signs, and the Gardners adopted it in future chimp studies. Conditioning practices, they found, inhibited a primate's natural curiosity and desire to learn. During this period, Fouts also worked with nonverbal
Autistic children and found that teaching sign language helped the children interact with others and in some cases even prompted speaking. The chimpanzees who survived into adulthood were housed in small cages and, in most cases, ultimately since to medical labs. Fouts, unable to control their circumstances, began drinking heavily and became, in his words, “an absent father and a lousy husband.” In 1981, the Gardners sent Fouts two more chimps that they had finished working with, 4-year-old Dar and 5-year-old Tatu, bringing the total to five. As the ape communication studies progressed, they found that the animals used signs to communicate with each other. The apes created phrases from combinations of signs to denote new things that were brought into their environment. In 1986, an
animal rights group called True Friends broke into a
National Institute of Health (NIH) lab in
Rockville,
Maryland. The group videotaped
AIDS-infected primates held in unfavorable conditions and mailed tapes to
Jane Goodall, Roger Fouts and major media outlets. In 1991, Fouts partnered with the
Animal Legal Defense Fund and sued the USDA for its treatment of captive chimpanzees, arguing that it violated the
Animal Welfare Act. The U.S. District Court ruled in their favor, but the decision was overruled on appeal. Roger Fouts has served as a consultant for the
Animal Legal Defense Fund, the
Natural Resources Defense Council, and the film
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan.
Retirement In June tired 2011, the Fouts' retired and promoted
Mary Lee Jensvold to director of CHCI. Two years later, Tatu and
Loulis, the two surviving chimps, were sent to
Fauna Foundation and CHCI was closed. A 2023 study found that over an eight-year period at the Fauna sanctuary, used signs to communicate with staff and each other. == See also ==