Chimpanzees drum with regular rhythm When they hit trees, it shows a new study.
Chimpanzees and human Finally, he shared a common ancestor about 6 million years ago. Scientists suspect that this old ancestor must have been a drummer, using rhythms to communicate.
“Our ability to produce rhythm, and use it in our social worlds, that seems to be something that is prior to humans to be human,” said Cat Hobaitar co -author, a primatologist at the University of St Andrews.
Previous investigations have shown that chimpanzees have their own signature battery style. A new analysis of 371 drum fighting of Chimpanzees demonstrates that chimpanzees “clearly touch their instruments, the trunks of the trees, with regular rhythms,” said musical cognition researcher at the University of Amsterdam, Henkjan Honing, who did not participate in the study.
When crossing through the jungle, chimpanzees often grab the high roots of the trees of the rainforest. Sometimes they hit them several times to create low frequency sounds that can be heard for a kilometer or more through the forest.
Scientists believe that the battery is a long -distance form of communication, perhaps to alert other chimpanzees where a chimpanzee is waiting or the direction in which he travels.
“It is a way of registering socially,” said Hobaitar, added that each chimpanzee has its own “individual signature, a pattern of rhythms that allows it to recognize who is producing that battery.”
The new work showed that chimpanzees from different regions of Africa Drum with clearly different rhythms, with Western chimpanzees preferring a more uniform rhythm, while Eastern chimpanzees used short and long intervals between beats. The research was published on Friday in the magazine Current biology.
It is well known that chimpanzees use tools such as rocks to break nuts and “fish” sticks of their mounds. The roots of the trees can also be tools, researchers say.
Chimpanzees are selective about what roots they hit, said co -author Catherine Crockford, a primatologist at the CNRS Institute of Cognitive Sciences in France. Certain shapes and varieties of wood create sounds that travel well through dense jungle.
It is likely that “a very important way to make contact,” he said.
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