Chimpanzees Craft Distinct Rhythms to Communicate Across Forests

The Wild Chimpanzees Africa are playing in the roots of the trees with structured and specific rhythms of the region, suggesting a sophisticated form of long distance communication and offering new ideas about the evolutionary roots of human musicality.

An exhaustive study published in * current biology * analyzed 371 drum sequences of 47 chimpanzees in 11 communities in Côte d’IVorire, Guinea, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda. The investigation revealed that chimpanzees produce rhythmic patterns that are not random but that exhibit a time and a consistent tempo, which clearly vary between the eastern and western populations.

Western chimpanzees, who inhabit regions such as Guinea and Côte d’Evroire, tend to produce uniformly spaced rhythms that remind a stable metronome. On the contrary, their oriental counterparts in Uganda and Tanzania favor more syncopated rhythms with alternate intervals, similar to a swing or jazz rhythm. These differences are not attributed to environmental factors, but it is believed that cultural variations within Chimpanzee communities reflect.

Each chimpanzee also exhibits a single battery firm, allowing others to identify the individual behind the rhythm. Researchers suggest that multiple purposes battery services: signaling location, movement coordination and strengthening social ties within groups. Low frequency sounds produced by battery in large tree buttresses can travel in a kilometer through a dense forest, so it is an effective means of communication.