Species Pan paniscus | Parents Panbanisha | |
Born 1998 Georgia State University Relatives Nathen (brother)
Kanzi (uncle)
Matata (grandmother) | ||
Nyota (pronounced en-Yo-ta; born 1998), also known by the lexigram , is a bonobo. Nyota was born at the Language Research Center at Georgia State University. His mother was Panbanisha and his father was P-suke. With Panbanisha's passing on November 6, 2012, Nyota became the sole surviving member of his immediate family.
Nyota's name means "Star" in Lingala, a language from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa. Nyota was reared by Panbanisha and Kanzi with primatologists Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and William M. Fields.
As a precocious youngster in 2004, Nyota is instrumental to researchers investigating the cross-generational effects of language and culture in a second-generation bonobo reared in a bi-cultural environment. On Monday, April 25, 2005 he, his brother Nathan (died May 15, 2009) and mother Panbanisha (died November 6, 2012) moved to the Great Ape Trust in Iowa. His father, P-suke (died July 7, 2006 in Iowa), uncle Kanzi, grandmother Matata, and other relatives were also moved to the Trust.