Niamh Shackleton
A man appears to be a real life Dr Dolittle after he managed to communicate with chimpanzees.
Arieh Smith is an influencer and language expert, and took his skills to new levels when after studying how bonobos communicate with one another.
Bonobos are said to share nearly 99 percent of their DNA with humans, making them our closest living relatives.
Advert
Researchers have suggested that, with our close matching DNA in mind, bonobos can sometimes show human-like traits, NPR says.
So bonobos made the perfect primates to be part of an experience conducted by Arieh (best known by Xiaomanyc) with the help of Ape Initiative, which is an ape sanctuary and scientific research facility in Iowa, US.
One bonobo that lives there, Kanzi, has famously learned to use over 300 Lexigram symbols to communicate. As per the Ape Initiative website, he is 'the first great ape to demonstrate an understanding of spoken English'.
Advert
While Kanzi has learnt parts out our language, Arieh wanted to challenge himself to learn Kanzi's language and attempt to communicate with him.
In video footage shared of his interaction with the famous primate, Arieh was seen tapping the glass (which he called affiliated tapping) and eating bananas.
He proceeded to crouch down and remained at eye-level with Kanzi, who was looking back with him in intrigue.
Advert
Arieh kept on exhibiting bonobo-like behaviors and Kanzi continued to respond.
Further on in the video, Arieh actually speaks in their language while the bonobos are in a different part of their enclosure, so they didn't know the sound was coming from him.
One of the bonobos responded, and Arieh made the sounds again. Ultimately, the bonobos were let back into the room to see Arieh on the other side of the glass, and seemed somewhat confused that there wasn't another bonobo in there waiting to greet them.
People have since shared their amazement of the video (which has been viewed over 10 million times on YouTube). One person wrote: "Bro has gone beyond the polyglot tier."
Advert
A different viewer gushed: "This is so freaking cool! I love that you took this so seriously, it's apparent that you put a lot of research into learning how to connect with the bonobos."
"Intelligent enough to figure out how to talk to a bonobo and humble enough to engage on their level without shame. I respect it," added another.
Following his visit to the sanctuary, Arieh is raising money for Ape Initiative. You can donate to his fundraiser via his YouTube channel here.