Editing Great ape language (section)

==1890s: Richard L. Garner==
[[File:Richard Lynch Garner inside his cage in Africa.png|thumb|Richard L. Garner lived in a cage to study gorillas in the field. Illustration from ''Apes and Monkeys: Their Life and Language'' (1900)]]
[[Richard Lynch Garner]] was the first researcher to explore in depth the communication skills of nonhuman primates. He began in 1884 studying monkeys in American zoos and later travelled to Africa to study gorillas and chimpanzees.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Herzfeld |first=Chris |title=The Great Apes: A Short History |date=2017 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780300221374 |edition=English translation of 2012 original French |location=New Haven and London |publication-date=2017}}</ref> He wrote frequently for popular journals and newspapers and ultimately had three books published on the subject, ''The Speech of Monkeys'' (1892), ''Gorillas & Chimpanzees'' (1896), and ''Apes and Monkeys: Their Life and Language'' (1900).

Garner argued that nonhuman primates have their own forms of speech. He claimed to be able to talk to the animals and act as their interpreter. His methods and conclusions were not scientific by any modern definition, but his work was nonetheless significant.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Yerkes |first=Robert M. |title=Almost Human |publisher=The Century Co. |year=1925 |location=New York and London}}</ref> For one thing, Garner studied the animals' intraspecies vocalizations, in some cases in their natural habitats. He went to great length to do so, even living inside of a cage himself to observe gorillas in Africa. This was in contrast to later language studies, which separated apes from their conspecifics (peers) and placed them in alien – human – habitats. Second, Garner pioneered the use of recording primate vocalizations and playing them back later for experimental purposes.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Radick |first=Gregory |title=The Simian Tongue: The Long Debate about Animal Language |date=2007 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226835945 |location=Chicago}}</ref>