In Budongo, Uganda, researchers have discovered intriguing similarities between wild chimpanzee gestures in East Africa and human conversations. These findings suggest that the turn-taking behaviors observed in chimps closely resemble the rapid exchanges commonly seen in human dialogues. Dr. Gal Badihi, an expert in animal behavior from the University of St Andrews, led the study to investigate whether chimpanzee communication follows similar rules to human conversations.
The study involved analyzing over 8,500 gestures from 252 wild chimpanzees across five different communities in East Africa. Researchers observed various interactions among the chimps, ranging from simple requests like “stop it” or “follow me” to more complex exchanges involving multiple gestures. Interestingly, the apes exhibited rapid response times, taking about 120 milliseconds to react to each other, mirroring the average conversational response time of humans.
Chimpanzees use gestures for a multitude of purposes in their daily lives, including reconciling after conflicts, avoiding confrontations, expressing affection, sharing food, and coordinating activities like grooming or traveling together. These findings shed light on the intricate nature of chimp communication and hint at the shared evolutionary heritage between humans and apes.
In a study published in Current Biology, researchers noted that while the timing of exchanges remained consistent across different age groups of chimps, there were subtle variations in gestural behavior among distinct chimp communities. The Sonso chimp community in Uganda, for instance, exhibited slower gesture exchanges compared to other groups. Dr. Catherine Hobaiter, a senior author of the study, likened these differences to the subtle cultural variations observed in human communication.
The research team suggests that rapid turn-taking in communication may be a hallmark of great apes like humans and chimpanzees, hinting at a broader feature of social interaction that may also exist in other species such as whales, dolphins, bats, and hyenas. These findings provide valuable insights into the complexities of non-verbal communication among our closest animal relatives, emphasizing the shared behaviors and evolutionary ties that link humans and apes.