science

Loulis

Loulis is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Loulis rather than just read about it. In short: Loulis (born May 10, 1978) is a chimpanzee who learned to communicate using signs adapted from American Sign Language. Loulis was named for two caregivers (Louise and Lisa) at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was born.

Key takeaways

Loulis belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Loulis to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Loulis from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Loulis (born May 10, 1978) is a chimpanzee who learned to communicate using signs adapted from American Sign Language. Loulis was named for two caregivers (Louise and Lisa) at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was born. After ten months at Yerkes, Loulis was taken from his biological mother (who remained at Yerkes) and transferred to Oklahoma by Roger Fouts. Fouts had been working with Washoe, the first chimpanzee used in sign language experiments, and wanted to see what would happen if Washoe had an infant. Specifically, Fouts wanted to know if she would teach her offspring signs, so he gave infant Loulis to Washoe. In 1980, Roger and Deborah Fouts moved to Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington with several other chimpanzees involved in the language experiments. By 1993, the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI) was built for the chimpanzees to reside in. In 2013, Loulis was moved from the CHCI to the chimpanzee sanctuary of the Fauna Foundation in Canada.

Language abilities Washoe and three other chimpanzees (Tatu, Dar, and Moja) were raised as if they were deaf human children and taught signs from American Sign Language. The chimpanzees regularly use the hand signals to communicate with each other and humans. Loulis is the only chimpanzee in the family who was not cross-fostered; he wasn't raised by humans but rather Washoe and the other chimpanzees. After eight days with Washoe, Loulis learned his first sign. For the first five years of his life, Loulis's human handlers only used seven signs around him (the signs used were who, which, want, where, name, that, and sign). Loulis was able to acquire what he learned of ASL from Washoe. The details of this research can be found in Teaching Sign Language to Chimpanzees, edited by R. Allen Gardner, Beatrix T. Gardner, and Thomas E. Van Cantfort, State University of New York Press, Albany, 1989. Mary Lee Jensvold, a chimp researcher who has worked with Loulis and Tatu, another former CHCI chimp, reported that the two chimps from CHCI continued to use signs at Fauna Foundation. Her most recent study about the chimps' sign was published in 2024.

See also Great ape language List of individual apes

References

External links Homepage of the Friends of Washoe

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Loulis

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Loulis claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Loulis before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Loulis ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Loulis

In research: Loulis appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Loulis in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Loulis is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1978 animal births, Individual animals in Georgia (U.S. state), Individual animals in Oklahoma, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Loulis outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Loulis in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Loulis means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Loulis out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Loulis in simple terms?

Why does Loulis matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Loulis?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Loulis.