Chimps Create Rhythmic Beats on Tree Trunks, a Traditional Method of Communication in Their Species
Rewritten Article:
Yo, here's the lowdown on our drummin' kin, chimps! It turns out they tap on tree trunks with a rhythm that'll make you question who was the first drummer in our family tree.
Six million years ago, the last common ancestor of us humans and chimps was walking around, probably beatin' on a tree or sumthin' to communicate. Scientists reckon it's likely our drummin' progenitor!
Cat Hobaiter, a primatologist from the University of St Andrews, thinks our ability to create and use rhythm was around before we even began to be humans. "Our capacity to drum—and to use it in our social world—seems to be something that predates humans being human," she says.
Research shows that chimps have their own unique drumming style, and a new study of 371 instances of chimpanzee drumming proves they're playin' their instruments, the tree trunks, with a regular rhythm.
Henkjan Honing, a music cognition researcher from the University of Amsterdam, who wasn't involved in the study, agrees. "They clearly play their instruments with regular rhythms."
In the jungle, when they stomp around, chimps tend to grip onto the tall buttress roots of rainforest trees and give 'em a pound or two. These low-frequency sounds can be heard over a kilometer or more through the forest, thanks to their drummin'.
Scientists speculate that the drumming serves as long-distance communication, perhaps to alert other chimps of their location or direction. As Hobaiter puts it, "It's sorta like a way of socially checkin'."
Even more fascinating, researchers found that chimps drum with different rhythms depending on the region of Africa they're from. While western chimps prefer a more even beat, eastern chimps use short and long intervals between beats.
The study was published in the journal Current Biology. It seems like our drummin' chimp pals are more sophisticated than we ever imagined!
When it comes to closer communication, chimps have a vocal repertoire that's way more intricate than we used to think, according to another study in Science Advances. Researchers discovered that chimps combine certain vocal calls to create fresh meanings. For instance, a call associated with relaxin' and one used to invite play could combine to signal an invitation to nest together nearby at night.
"I reckon we've probably underestimated the complexity of animal communication," says Catherine Crockford, a primatologist at the CNRS Institute for Cognitive Sciences in France and part of both research teams.
Get this: Chimps are picky about which roots they drum, according to the study. Certain shapes and wood varieties create sounds that travel well through dense jungle. These drumming sessions could be a crucial way for chimps to stay in touch.
So yeah, don't sleep on our drummin' simian brethren; they're rhythm masters in the African jungle, makin' contact and communicatin' across vast distances!
Enrichment Data:- Chimpanzees drumming on tree roots is an advanced long-distance communication tactic, developed to signify location, movement, and presence to other chimpanzees.- Each chimpanzee has a unique drumming signature or style that acts as an auditory "identity badge".- Western chimpanzees tend to drum faster, while eastern groups use varying intervals between beats, suggesting the development of distinct regional "dialects" or group identities in their drumming patterns.- The likely purpose of chimpanzee drumming is to maintain contact across large, visually obstructed jungle environments.- The practice of drumming, which likely traces back to the last common ancestor shared by humans and chimpanzees over six million years ago, indicates that rhythmic communication predates human music and language.
In the realm of communication, chimpanzees exhibit an intriguing drumming behavior that has roots traced back to our shared ancestor with them, approximately six million years ago. This technique, it seems, serves as a long-distance communication method, allowing them to signal their location, movement, and presence to other chimpanzees. Furthermore, each chimpanzee boasts a unique drumming style, acting as an auditory "identity badge" within the jungle. Remarkably, this advanced tactic, while resembling rhythmic communication, appears to predate human music and language, transpiring in the realms of science and politics among our drumming simian kin, both in Seattle and across the expanses of Africa.
