Latest news with #CatherineCrockford
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Chimpanzees use some features of language to talk to each other
New research suggests wild chimpanzees have developed a far more nuanced communication system than previously realized, using several mechanisms that combine their vocalizations to create new meaning. These elements of chimpanzee communication, described in a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances, resemble some of the fundamental building blocks of human language. Scientists analyzed recordings of three groups of chimpanzees living in the Ivory Coast and found that chimps can combine their hoots, grunts and calls in a similar way to how humans use idioms or change the order of words to build new phrases. The new research is the first time scientists have documented such complexity in a nonhuman communication system, and they think that the chimpanzees' abilities represent an evolutionary transition point between rudimentary animal communication and human language. 'Generating new or combined meanings by combining words is a hallmark of human language,' Catherine Crockford, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology who co-directs the Tai Chimpanzee Project, said in a news release. 'It is crucial to investigate whether a similar capacity exists in our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos.' A separate study, published last month, provided similar evidence that bonobos, another primate, can also combine their calls to modify calls and form phrases. Together, these studies suggest both species evolved to develop fundamental building blocks of human language. Bonobos and chimpanzees are the species most closely related to humans in evolutionary history, which means all three species could have evolved from a common ancestor with this ability, a theory that could help researchers understand how human language developed. 'Our findings suggest a highly generative vocal communication system, unprecedented in the animal kingdom, which echoes recent findings in bonobos suggesting that complex combinatorial capacities were already present in the common ancestor of humans and these two great ape species,' Cédric Girard-Buttoz, a researcher with the ENES bioacoustics research lab and the first author of the study, said in a news release. The researchers discovered these new complexities in chimpanzees' vocal system by following particular animals in the field from dawn to dusk for about 12 hours each day, recording the sounds the chimpanzees made and the responses from others in the group. They recorded more than 4,300 vocalizations from 53 wild chimpanzees. During the chimps' vocal calls, the researchers also tracked what activities, social interactions and environmental changes were occurring, and noted if the animals were eating, playing or encountering a predator, for example. Then, the researchers performed a statistical analysis of specific two-call combinations — such as a grunt followed by a bark — that were documented in multiple animals. The researchers found that chimpanzees combined calls in all of their daily aspects of life and that the combinations could express a wide variety of meanings. Simon Townsend, a professor at the University of Zurich who studies cognition in primates and contributed to the bonobo research but was not involved in this study, said the paper is the first to show chimpanzees using several different mechanisms that are considered to be among the building blocks of language. He said the evidence does suggest that the common evolutionary ancestor of bonobos, humans and chimpanzees probably had this ability, too. 'It does seem to suggest that our linguistic abilities were already well on the way to evolving ... 6-7 million years ago,' Townsend said, referring to when the species likely branched off from one another in the evolutionary tree. Not all primates show evidence of such complicated communication. Forest monkeys, which have relatively simple social groups, mostly use vocalizations to manage predatory threats, Townsend said. But he thinks the formation of increasingly large and complicated social groups — an element common to great ape species and humans — likely spurred the evolution of more complex communication and eventually the ability to form language. For bonobos and chimpanzees, 'the biggest challenge for them is navigating their complex social world. They live in much larger groups. … There's aggression, there's reconciliation, there's territoriality, there's intergroup interactions, and vocalizations, I think, is one evolutionary solution to trying to manage these complex and fine-grained social interactions,' Townsend said. In human language, syntax is the set of rules that creates a system capable of expressing an infinite number of meanings. 'Syntax is all about providing more and more precise, refined information. And you probably only need to do that when your social interactions get more complex,' Townsend said. This article was originally published on
NBC News
11-05-2025
- Science
- NBC News
Chimpanzees use some features of language to talk to each other
New research suggests wild chimpanzees have developed a far more nuanced communication system than previously realized, using several mechanisms that combine their vocalizations to create new meaning. These elements of chimpanzee communication, described in a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances, resemble some of the fundamental building blocks of human language. Scientists analyzed recordings of three groups of chimpanzees living in the Ivory Coast and found that chimps can combine their hoots, grunts and calls in a similar way to how humans use idioms or change the order of words to build new phrases. The new research is the first time scientists have documented such complexity in a nonhuman communication system, and they think that the chimpanzees' abilities represent an evolutionary transition point between rudimentary animal communication and human language. 'Generating new or combined meanings by combining words is a hallmark of human language,' Catherine Crockford, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology who co-directs the Tai Chimpanzee Project, said in a news release. 'It is crucial to investigate whether a similar capacity exists in our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos.' A separate study, published last month, provided similar evidence that bonobos, another primate, can also combine their calls to modify calls and form phrases. Together, these studies suggest both species evolved to develop fundamental building blocks of human language. Bonobos and chimpanzees are the species most closely related to humans in evolutionary history, which means all three species could have evolved from a common ancestor with this ability, a theory that could help researchers understand how human language developed. 'Our findings suggest a highly generative vocal communication system, unprecedented in the animal kingdom, which echoes recent findings in bonobos suggesting that complex combinatorial capacities were already present in the common ancestor of humans and these two great ape species,' Cédric Girard-Buttoz, a researcher with the ENES bioacoustics research lab and the first author of the study, said in a news release. The researchers discovered these new complexities in chimpanzees' vocal system by following particular animals in the field from dawn to dusk for about 12 hours each day, recording the sounds the chimpanzees made and the responses from others in the group. They recorded more than 4,300 vocalizations from 53 wild chimpanzees. During the chimps' vocal calls, the researchers also tracked what activities, social interactions and environmental changes were occurring, and noted if the animals were eating, playing or encountering a predator, for example. Then, the researchers performed a statistical analysis of specific two-call combinations — such as a grunt followed by a bark — that were documented in multiple animals. The researchers found that chimpanzees combined calls in all of their daily aspects of life and that the combinations could express a wide variety of meanings. Simon Townsend, a professor at the University of Zurich who studies cognition in primates and contributed to the bonobo research but was not involved in this study, said the paper is the first to show chimpanzees using several different mechanisms that are considered to be among the building blocks of language. He said the evidence does suggest that the common evolutionary ancestor of bonobos, humans and chimpanzees probably had this ability, too. 'It does seem to suggest that our linguistic abilities were already well on the way to evolving ... 6-7 million years ago,' Townsend said, referring to when the species likely branched off from one another in the evolutionary tree. Not all primates show evidence of such complicated communication. Forest monkeys, which have relatively simple social groups, mostly use vocalizations to manage predatory threats, Townsend said. But he thinks the formation of increasingly large and complicated social groups — an element common to great ape species and humans — likely spurred the evolution of more complex communication and eventually the ability to form language. For bonobos and chimpanzees, 'the biggest challenge for them is navigating their complex social world. They live in much larger groups. … There's aggression, there's reconciliation, there's territoriality, there's intergroup interactions, and vocalizations, I think, is one evolutionary solution to trying to manage these complex and fine-grained social interactions,' Townsend said. In human language, syntax is the set of rules that creates a system capable of expressing an infinite number of meanings. 'Syntax is all about providing more and more precise, refined information. And you probably only need to do that when your social interactions get more complex,' Townsend said.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Researchers stunned to discover cause of change in chimpanzee mating behavior: 'Rarely been demonstrated before'
A recent study on chimpanzees in Taï National Park in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa, revealed that chimpanzees are losing traditions of male mating gestures. This coincides with declining chimpanzee populations due to human activity, according to an article posted to The loss of traditional chimpanzee social and cultural behaviors within groups may never be recovered even if population numbers return to healthier states. Like other wildlife species, including koalas and polar bears, chimpanzees are threatened by habitat loss. Human activity — such as deforestation from logging, mining, and agriculture — destroys chimpanzee habitats. As a result, chimpanzees are forced into small areas of the forest where they are more vulnerable to poaching (to be kept as exotic pets or used as bushmeat, as the International Fund for Animal Welfare reported). They are also forced to resort to alternative food sources, such as bat guano, which could increase the risk of communicable diseases and reduce the population. Male chimpanzees use specific mating request gestures, such as the "knuckle knock" or "heel click," to signal to female chimpanzees that they are ready for reproductive activities. According to the recent chimpanzee study, chimpanzees in the North group used the "knuckle knock" widely before the year 2004. But North group male chimpanzees have not used the "knuckle knock" gesture in over 20 years now. This may be due to the loss of male chimpanzee role models who would otherwise carry on the traditional mating request gesture. In 2008, the last adult male chimpanzee of the North group was killed by a poacher, the study found, wiping out any male role models to teach younger generations the local group's traditional signal. Studying the development of communicative gestures within groups and between neighboring groups, the study authors found that variance in mating gestures and signals indicated "socially learned dialects in chimpanzees, evidence that has rarely been demonstrated before," senior author Catherine Crockford said, per Chimpanzees are listed as endangered species under the Intentional Union for the Conservation of Nature, according to the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation. Declining chimpanzee populations could mean the risk of losing these species forever, disrupting the balance of local ecosystems and potentially leading to further species extinctions. The recent study also revealed that the effects of a dip in population may be long-lasting even if the decline is temporary. For example, though North group male chimpanzee numbers have "returned to levels comparable to when the gesture was last observed," the gesture has not returned, the study found. The behavior has been lost for the entire group. Conservation groups like the World Wildlife Fund are working to establish protected areas in parts of Africa where chimpanzees naturally roam and live. Advocates are also petitioning government stakeholders and training law enforcement officers to disrupt the chimpanzee poaching trade, the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance reported. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
CBC
14-02-2025
- Science
- CBC
How do male chimps ask for sex? It depends on their local dialect
When a male chimpanzee wants to hit on a female without causing a scene, he sometimes has to get a little creative. "The alpha male, he can mate with whoever he wants, whenever he wants, and he gets at least half of the offspring," Catherine Crockford of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "The subordinate males, they want to have their go. But, you know, they can't if the alpha male spots them." To avoid the alpha's wrath, Crockford says males use covert physical gestures — which she calls "the sneakies" — to solicit sex. These mating moves, which she and her colleagues documented for a new study, vary between chimpanzee communities, suggesting chimp populations have their own distinct dialects. Crockford says the findings, published in the journal Current Biology, show that chimpanzee conservation is about more than protecting animals; it's about safeguarding entire cultures. Northern knuckle-knockers Crockford and her colleagues looked at the use of mating signals over the course of 45 years among chimpanzees at the Taï National Park in Ivory Coast. Four groups of chimps call the park home, identified by which area of the park they inhabit: north, south, east and northeast. The researchers observed four distinct ways males signalled a desire for sex: knocking their knuckles on a hard surface, kicking their heels, tearing strips from a leaf and waving a branch. While all four groups perform the branch and heel gestures, only the chimps in the northeastern part of the park knuckle-knock and only the southeastern chimps use the leaves. It's a surprising difference for two populations who have a shared gene pool and live just 500 kilometres apart in the same habitat, Crawford said. "The only way that this can come about is that the young males must learn from watching the older males," she said. Julie Teichroeb, who studies primate behaviour at the University of Toronto Scarborough, says she's not surprised by the findings. After all, she says, differences in vocal communications have been well-documented in many different types of animals. Different populations of whales and songbirds, for example, are known to have unique regional dialects. Recent research suggests elephants may even have their own distinct names for each other. Chimpanzees, too, have been shown to have geographic differences in their "pant hoots" which are loud, long-distance calls. In that case, Teichroeb notes, it's unclear whether the differences are cultural or genetic. Culture is fragile In the case of the Taï National Park study, Crockford says there's clearly a cultural factor at play. And cultures, she says, can be lost. In fact, the scientists have already seen this play out. One of Crockford's colleagues, field assistant Honora Néné Kpazahi, first noticed decades ago that males in the park's northern population were knocking their knuckles to get females' attention. But over time, the gesture's prevalence declined as several disease outbreaks, some spilled over from humans, ravaged the population until only two males were left. Illegal poachers killed one of those males, Marius, in 2004. With only one male left standing, the gesture was no longer needed, and it's been lost to that group ever since. Now, only the northeastern chimpanzees do it. The same thing, she says, can happen to other learned behaviours, like the use of tools, which also varies between populations. "The sad thing is that we now know that not only does [poaching] kill chimpanzees, but it kills the cultures," she said. "These cultures can take generations to emerge, we think. And, you know, if you lose those skills, then it might actually impact your survival." Teichroeb said in an email the loss of that knuckle-knocking gesture among Ivory Coast chimps shows "how fragile animal culture is, just like human culture."
