Happy Birthday to Our Dear Friend
50 Years of Being Tatu
As many of you know, Tatu uses American Sign Language (ASL) and has an interesting history. Tatu was born at the Institute for Primate Studies on December 30, 1975. When she was two days old she arrived at Allen and Beatrix Gardner’s cross-fostering laboratory at the University of Nevada (for images see here (Cummings Center still images)). Tatu and other chimpanzees, were raised in conditions like Western middle class children, and all the human caregivers used ASL (see here https://archive.org/embed/thefirstsignsofwashoe for a 2-part documentary on the sign language project and a short clip of Tatu in Reno here). She began to sign by the time she was 4 months old. When Tatu was 5 years old, she moved to Ellensburg, Washington (read more about that here). In 2013 Tatu moved to Fauna Foundation where she celebrates her birthday this week! The story of coming to Fauna is here (friendsofwashoe.org) and here (Fauna Foundation Legends). She has continued to sign throughout her life (read more here). Tatu is known for her lifelong love of masks, the color black, and food. She is persistent, perseverant, and most importantly she wants to be in charge.
We invite you to explore all these links. The Cummings Center holds the archive of cross-fostering project. Friends of Washoe collaborates with Fauna Foundation to provide care for Tatu and Loulis.
