Over the course of several decades, Elizabeth Rubert-Pugh has been a principal caretaker and technician in the laboratories led by her sister, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh. Liz has played a key role in the language research involving the bonobos by consolidating their symbolic and learning capacities through maternal care. She was especially instrumental in raising Kanzi’s sister Panbanisha (1985-2012) and overseeing the cohesion and welfare of the great ape colonies at Georgia State University then at the IPLS located in Des Moines. Liz stopped working with the apes in 2014. She passed away in 2019 without being provided another opportunity to see the bonobos she reared.
Elizabeth Rubert-Pugh’s testimony is in two parts. Recordings were acquired in 2018 in Branson, MO. Cathy Caruth and Laurent Dubreuil conducted the interviews. Dubreuil directed and edited the movie.
LIZ RUBERT-PUGH’S TESTIMONY, PART ONE (2018)
LIZ RUBERT-PUGH’S TESTIMONY, PART TWO (2018)
DISCLAIMER. The views expressed by the interviewees are their own and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Ape Testimony Project and of the individuals or organizations associated with this initiative.
A WRITTEN TRANSCRIPTION of the testimony will be added at a later date.
PRODUCTION NOTES will be added at a later date.
EXPLANATORY NOTES will be added at a later date.