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dc.contributor.advisorHobaiter, Catherine
dc.contributor.authorGrund, Charlotte Vicki Christina
dc.coverage.spatial321en_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-04-02T14:06:20Z
dc.date.available2024-04-02T14:06:20Z
dc.date.issued2024-06-10
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/29583
dc.description.abstractGestures are communicative tools with which great apes navigate close-range social interaction. Sharing key commonalities with human linguistic behaviour, the ape gestural system has long been discussed as a potential precursor to language. While gesture studies have increasingly included data on natural wild-type ape behaviour, the role gestures play in wild gorilla sociality remains largely unexplored. I studied four social units of mountain gorillas living in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, and collected ad libitum video data on daily social interactions across age classes (157 observation days, 53 individuals). Using a novel ELAN-based bottom-up framework for the systematic study of ape gesture (GesturalOrigins), I coded 3330 intentionally produced gesture instances. Mountain gorillas employed 63 gesture actions, ~75% of which were shared with other ape species. Applying latent class analysis, these were split into 126 finer-grained units (‘morphs’). Mountain gorillas requested 11 basic goals, and gesture actions showed high overlap in function with the use of gesture by Pan. Gorilla-specific units were primarily used in requests for sexual and (to an extent) affiliative interaction, and sexual solicitations were associated with the highest gesturing effort and the greatest diversity of synonymous gesture units (followed by play initiations). Play was mostly requested through audible gestures, while gesturing for sex and grooming was biased towards visual forms. In comparison to East African chimpanzees, mountain gorillas gestured more frequently from the ground, from closer proximity, and employed more contact and fewer audible gestures. Despite mountain gorillas’ smaller sized groups and less cooperative nature compared to Pan, they gesture as frequently, with a repertoire of similar size, and employ gestures for similar goals. Investigating wild gorilla gesture use contributes not only a better understanding of gorilla communication but crucial context for theories on the ancestral state of human communicative behaviour and the evolution of language.en_US
dc.description.sponsorship"This work was supported by the European Union’s 8th Framework Programme, Horizon 2020, under grant agreement no 802719."--Fundingen
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/*
dc.subjectGestural repertoireen_US
dc.subjectCommunicationen_US
dc.subjectGesture modalityen_US
dc.subjectSexual solicitationen_US
dc.subjectVideo-codingen_US
dc.subjectMountain gorilla socialityen_US
dc.subjectELANen_US
dc.subjectSocioecology and gesture formen_US
dc.subjectGestural goals and persistenceen_US
dc.subjectGesture functionen_US
dc.titleThe gestural communication of mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei)en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.contributor.sponsorHorizon 2020 (Programme)en_US
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen_US
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD Doctor of Philosophyen_US
dc.publisher.institutionThe University of St Andrewsen_US
dc.rights.embargodate2027-03-28
dc.rights.embargoreasonThesis restricted in accordance with University regulations. Restricted until 28 March 2027en
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.17630/sta/835
dc.identifier.grantnumber802719en_US


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    Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
    Except where otherwise noted within the work, this item's licence for re-use is described as Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International