St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Dialects in leaf-clipping and other leaf-modifying gestures between neighbouring communities of East African chimpanzees

Thumbnail
View/Open
Badihi_2023_SR_Dialeccts_leaf_clipping_CC.pdf (1.325Mb)
Date
05/01/2023
Author
Badihi, Gal
Graham, Kirsty E.
Fallon, Brittany
Safryghin, Alexandra
Soldati, Adrian
Zuberbühler, Klaus
Hobaiter, Catherine
Funder
European Research Council
Grant ID
802719
Keywords
BF Psychology
QL Zoology
DAS
MCC
Metadata
Show full item record
Altmetrics Handle Statistics
Altmetrics DOI Statistics
Abstract
Dialects are a cultural property of animal communication previously described in the signals of several animal species. While dialects have predominantly been described in vocal signals, chimpanzee leaf-clipping and other ‘leaf-modifying’ gestures, used across chimpanzee and bonobo communities, have been suggested as a candidate for cultural variation in gestural communication. Here we combine direct observation with archaeological techniques to compare the form and use of leaf-modifying gestures in two neighbouring communities of East African chimpanzees. We found that while both communities used multiple forms, primarily within sexual solicitation, they showed a strong preference for a single, different gesture form. The observed variation in form preference between these neighbouring communities within the same context suggests that these differences are, at least in part, socially derived. Our results highlight an unexplored source of variation and flexibility in gestural communication, opening the door for future research to explore socially derived dialects in non-vocal communication.
Citation
Badihi , G , Graham , K E , Fallon , B , Safryghin , A , Soldati , A , Zuberbühler , K & Hobaiter , C 2023 , ' Dialects in leaf-clipping and other leaf-modifying gestures between neighbouring communities of East African chimpanzees ' , Scientific Reports , vol. 13 , 147 . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-25814-x
Publication
Scientific Reports
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-25814-x
ISSN
2045-2322
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Description
Funding: Royal Zoological Society of Scotland provide core funding to Budongo Conservation Field Station. Finally, we thank the European Research Council for funding this project under Gestural Origins Grant No: 802719 and NCCR Evolving Language, Swiss National Science Foundation Agreement #51NF40_180888.
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/26719

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter