Next of Kin: What My Conversations with Chimpanzees Have Taught Me About Intelligence, Compassion and Being Human

Roger Fouts, a leading animal psychologist and pioneer in the field of animal language research, achieved almost celebrity status in the late 1960s when he succcessfully taught his adopted chimp, Washoe, how to use sign language. For the last 30 years Fouts and Washoe have been exploring the frontiers of primate intelligence, creativity and culture. Fouts uses this unique relationship as the narrative for this book, which is both a personal memoir and professional journal. The book also traces how Fouts was forced to rethink his professional identity because of the close personal binds that develop between him and the chimps.