In a dome-shaped outdoor cage, a dozen chimpanzees are hooting. The hair on their shoulders sticks straight up. “That’s piloerection,” a sign of emotional arousal, says Dr. Dana Hasselschwert, head of veterinary sciences at the New Iberia Research Center. She tells a visitor to keep his distance. The chimps tend to throw pebbles — or worse — when they get excited.
In introducing this week’s topic, I fear that my language may have painted something of a false dichotomy. Are we “just” wild animals, or are we somehow separate from the many species with whom we share planet Earth? I often find myself guilty of stratifying the human experience far above that of “lesser” creatures, an exercise which can frankly be taken to a dangerous extreme when the sanctity of life is in question.
Actions speak louder than words. Baby chimps, bonobos, gorillas and orang-utans – our four closest living relatives – quickly learn to use visual gestures to get their message across, providing the latest evidence that hand waving may have been a vital first step in the development of human language.
Scientists may be a step closer to understanding the origins of human social behaviour.
An analysis of over 200 primate species by a University of Oxford team suggests that our ancestors gave up their solitary existence when they shifted from being nocturnal creatures to those that are active during the day.
It is likely communal living was adopted to protect against day time predators, the researchers say.
The results are published in Nature.
Now the latest research suggests that similar rules apply to the wild chacmababoons of Namibia; it turns out that the best leaders are the most sociable types with lots of friends.
A European team of scientists found that when one baboon sets an example by moving off in search of breakfast, the others follow. But these movements are far from random. Instead, they appear to follow a clearly-defined rule; baboons that are central in the grooming network have the best chance of being followed.
A 25-year-old chimpanzee named “Panzee” has just demonstrated that speech perception is not a uniquely human trait.
Well-educated Panzee understands more than 130 English language words and even recognizes words in sine-wave form, a type of synthetic speech that reduces language to three whistle-like tones. This shows that she isn’t just responding to a particular person’s voice or emotions, but instead she is processing and perceiving speech as humans do.
