Communication and cooperation in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)
Comparisons between animal and human communication are invaluable for understanding the evolution of language and, as our closest living relatives, chimpanzees can provide particularly important insights into this. Here I examined unimodal (UM) and multimodal (MM) communication in wild chimpanzees,...
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ndltd-bl.uk-oai-ethos.bl.uk-7143672018-09-05T03:37:02ZCommunication and cooperation in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)Wilke, ClaudiaKatie, Slocombe2016Comparisons between animal and human communication are invaluable for understanding the evolution of language and, as our closest living relatives, chimpanzees can provide particularly important insights into this. Here I examined unimodal (UM) and multimodal (MM) communication in wild chimpanzees, in an integrated manner. I found that although MM signals were produced infrequently, and at lower rates compared to captivity, the vast majority of adult and sub-adult individuals did freely combine vocal, gestural and facial signals to produce MM signals. A total of 48 free MM signal combinations were observed, incorporating a wide range of different signal types from different modalities. Focusing on one specific vocalgestural MM signal, I found that MM combinations and UM gestural signals were more successful in eliciting responses compared to UM vocal signals. To investigate signal function more systematically I focused on one common grooming gesture, the big loud scratch (BLS), and tested several competing functional hypotheses. I found little evidence to support the hypotheses that this signal operates as an attention-getter, or as a referential signal. In contrast, my data suggested that in this community of chimpanzees, the BLS facilitates the negotiation of roles within a grooming bout. Groomers used BLSs to request grooming during grooming bouts and the BLS seemed to show willingness to groom, both to initiate a grooming bout, and potentially during a bout when groomees intend to start grooming their partner. Finally, to explore the theoretical link between the evolution of communication and cooperation I tested whether, on an individual level, there was a positive relationship between communicativeness and cooperativeness in chimpanzees. In contrast to theoretical predictions, I found a significantly negative relationship between these two domains, indicating that more communicative chimpanzees were less cooperative. I explore several potential explanations for this highly unexpected finding.599.885159University of Yorkhttps://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.714367http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/16373/Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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599.885159 Wilke, Claudia Communication and cooperation in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) |
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Comparisons between animal and human communication are invaluable for understanding the evolution of language and, as our closest living relatives, chimpanzees can provide particularly important insights into this. Here I examined unimodal (UM) and multimodal (MM) communication in wild chimpanzees, in an integrated manner. I found that although MM signals were produced infrequently, and at lower rates compared to captivity, the vast majority of adult and sub-adult individuals did freely combine vocal, gestural and facial signals to produce MM signals. A total of 48 free MM signal combinations were observed, incorporating a wide range of different signal types from different modalities. Focusing on one specific vocalgestural MM signal, I found that MM combinations and UM gestural signals were more successful in eliciting responses compared to UM vocal signals. To investigate signal function more systematically I focused on one common grooming gesture, the big loud scratch (BLS), and tested several competing functional hypotheses. I found little evidence to support the hypotheses that this signal operates as an attention-getter, or as a referential signal. In contrast, my data suggested that in this community of chimpanzees, the BLS facilitates the negotiation of roles within a grooming bout. Groomers used BLSs to request grooming during grooming bouts and the BLS seemed to show willingness to groom, both to initiate a grooming bout, and potentially during a bout when groomees intend to start grooming their partner. Finally, to explore the theoretical link between the evolution of communication and cooperation I tested whether, on an individual level, there was a positive relationship between communicativeness and cooperativeness in chimpanzees. In contrast to theoretical predictions, I found a significantly negative relationship between these two domains, indicating that more communicative chimpanzees were less cooperative. I explore several potential explanations for this highly unexpected finding. |
author2 |
Katie, Slocombe |
author_facet |
Katie, Slocombe Wilke, Claudia |
author |
Wilke, Claudia |
author_sort |
Wilke, Claudia |
title |
Communication and cooperation in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) |
title_short |
Communication and cooperation in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) |
title_full |
Communication and cooperation in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) |
title_fullStr |
Communication and cooperation in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Communication and cooperation in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) |
title_sort |
communication and cooperation in wild chimpanzees (pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) |
publisher |
University of York |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.714367 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT wilkeclaudia communicationandcooperationinwildchimpanzeespantroglodytesschweinfurthii |
_version_ |
1718730941912842240 |