Move somewhere new, and it’s not long before you pick up some local slang. As it turns out, chimpanzees might be able to do something similar.
Maybe we’re not so different after all.
When a group of chimps from Beekse Bergen Safari Park in the Netherlands was sent to live with the chimps at the Edinburgh Zoo in 2010, they each had their own distinct grunts and calls that represented “apple.”
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Dr. Rob Shumaker, supervising vice president of conservation, science, and education at the Indianapolis Zoo and a co-author on the orangutan paper, said that — as with humans — a common vocabulary allows chimps to communicate more effectively.
“While it’s not surprising that chimpanzees prioritize group cohesion, it is quite remarkable to see it documented through these evolving vocalizations,” Shumaker said.
“Overall, the paper speaks to the cognitive complexity that is present in chimpanzees and great apes in general,” Shumaker said. “Further, it affirms the notion that any differences we see between the mental skills of humans and the other great apes are ones of degree, not kind.”
