scholarly journals Orangutan pantomime: elaborating the message

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 627-630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Russon ◽  
Kristin Andrews
Keyword(s):  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Great Ape ◽  
Multiple Functions ◽  
Communicative Functions ◽  
Ape Communication ◽  
Free Ranging

We present an exploratory study of forest-living orangutan pantomiming, i.e. gesturing in which they act out their meaning, focusing on its occurrence, communicative functions, and complexities. Studies show that captive great apes may elaborate messages if communication fails, and isolated reports suggest that great apes occasionally pantomime. We predicted forest-living orangutans would pantomime spontaneously to communicate, especially to elaborate after communication failures. Mining existing databases on free-ranging rehabilitant orangutans' behaviour identified 18 salient pantomimes. These pantomimes most often functioned as elaborations of failed requests, but also as deceptions and declaratives. Complexities identified include multimodality, re-enactments of past events and several features of language (productivity, compositionality, systematicity). These findings confirm that free-ranging rehabilitant orangutans pantomime and use pantomime to elaborate on their messages. Further, they use pantomime for multiple functions and create complex pantomimes that can express propositionally structured content. Thus, orangutan pantomime serves as a medium for communication, not a particular function. Mining cases of complex great ape communication originally reported in functional terms may then yield more evidence of pantomime.

scholarly journals Great ape communication as contextual social inference: a computational modeling perspective

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Bohn ◽  
Katja Liebal ◽  
Michael Henry Tessler
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Great Ape ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Inference Process ◽  
Social Inference ◽  
The Social ◽  
Pragmatic Reasoning ◽  
Ape Communication

Human communication has been described as a contextual social inference process. Research into great ape communication has been inspired by this view to look for the evolutionary roots of the social, cognitive, and interactional processes involved in human communication. This approach has been highly productive, yet it is often compromised by a too-narrow focus on how great apes use and understand individual signals. In this paper, we introduce a computational model that formalizes great ape communication as a multi-faceted social inference process that relies on information contained in the signal, the relationship between communicative partners, and the social context. This model makes accurate qualitative and quantitative predictions about real-world communicative interactions between semi-wild-living chimpanzees. When enriched with a pragmatic reasoning process, the model explains repeatedly reported differences between humans and great apes in the interpretation of ambiguous signals (e.g. pointing gestures). This approach has direct implications for observational and experimental studies of great ape communication and provides a new tool for theorizing about the evolution of uniquely human communication.

scholarly journals Wild African great apes as natural hosts of malaria parasites: current knowledge and research perspectives

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hélène Marie De Nys ◽  
Therese Löhrich ◽  
Doris Wu ◽  
Sébastien Calvignac-Spencer ◽  
Fabian Hubertus Leendertz
Keyword(s):  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Great Ape ◽  
Malaria Parasites ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
Parasite Ecology ◽  
Natural Hosts ◽  
African Great Apes

Abstract. Humans and African great apes (AGAs) are naturally infected with several species of closely related malaria parasites. The need to understand the origins of human malaria as well as the risk of zoonotic transmissions and emergence of new malaria strains in human populations has markedly encouraged research on great ape Plasmodium parasites. Progress in the use of non-invasive methods has rendered investigations into wild ape populations possible. Present knowledge is mainly focused on parasite diversity and phylogeny, with still large gaps to fill on malaria parasite ecology. Understanding what malaria infection means in terms of great ape health is also an important, but challenging avenue of research and has been subject to relatively few research efforts so far. This paper reviews current knowledge on African great ape malaria and identifies gaps and future research perspectives.

Cradle Under the Canopy The Forest Origins of our Ape and Hominin Ancestors and the Tropical Forest Forays of the Genus Homo

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Tool Use ◽  
Pan Paniscus ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Last Common Ancestor ◽  
Great Ape ◽  
Tropical Environments ◽  
Genus Homo ◽  
In Captivity ◽  
Game Hunting ◽  
The Tropics

The evolutionary proximity of the non-human great apes to us is often stressed in studies of animals, such as Kanzi, a bonobo (Pan paniscus) bred in captivity, that demonstrate their capacity to undertake tool-use and even utilize and comprehend language (Toth et al., 1993; Savage-Rumbaugh and Lewin, 1996; Schick et al., 1999). Likewise, studies of chimpanzees (Pan spp.) have highlighted the similarity of their emotional and empathetic capacities to those of humans (Parr et al., 2005; Campbell and de Waal, 2014). However, as noted by Savage- Rumbaugh and Lewin (1996), in palaeoanthropology and archaeology more broadly, the emergence of the hominin clade and, later, our species, is referenced in terms of the ‘chasm’ between ourselves and other extant great apes. Indeed, despite our genetic and behavioural proximity, extant non-human great ape taxa are often popularly characterized as living fossils of how we used to be. They are used as analogues for the subsistence and behaviour of the Last Common Ancestor (LCA) of humans and non-human great apes (Clutton-Brock and Harvey, 1977; Goodall, 1986; Foley and Lewin, 2004) and it is almost as if the fact that they still occupy the tropical environments in which these hominoids likely evolved (though see Elton, 2008) allows them to be treated as static comparisons (Figure 3.1). Since Darwin wrote the Descent of Man in 1871, the forests of the tropics, and their modern non-human great ape inhabitants, have tended to be perceived as being left behind as the hominin clade gained increasingly ‘human’ traits of tool-use, medium to large game hunting, and upright locomotion on open ‘savanna’ landscapes (Dart, 1925; Potts, 1998; Klein, 1999). From this perspective it is perhaps unsurprising that tropical forests are seen as alien to the genus Homo and its closest hominin ancestors.

scholarly journals Correction: Adenovirus and Herpesvirus Diversity in Free-Ranging Great Apes in the Sangha Region of the Republic of Congo

PLoS ONE ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. e0221845
Author(s):  
Tracie A. Seimon ◽  
Sarah H. Olson ◽  
Kerry Jo Lee ◽  
Gail Rosen ◽  
Alain Ondzie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Great Apes ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Free Ranging

Pantomime and imitation in great apes

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 200-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne E. Russon
Keyword(s):  
Data Mining ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Great Ape ◽  
Evolution Of Language ◽  
Distinct Process ◽  
Action Imitation ◽  
Primitive Forms ◽  
Communicative Abilities

Abstract This paper assesses great apes’ abilities for pantomime and action imitation, two communicative abilities proposed as key contributors to language evolution. Modern great apes, the only surviving nonhuman hominids, are important living models of the communicative platform upon which language evolved. This assessment is based on 62 great ape pantomimes identified via data mining plus published reports of great ape action imitation. Most pantomimes were simple, imperative, and scaffolded by partners’ relationship and scripts; some resemble declaratives, some were sequences of several inter-related elements. Imitation research consistently shows great apes perform action imitation at low fidelity, but also that action imitation may not represent a distinct process or function. Discussion focuses on how findings may advance reconstruction of the evolution of language, including what great apes may contribute to understanding ‘primitive’ forms of pantomime and imitation and how to improve their study.

scholarly journals Enteroviruses from Humans and Great Apes in the Republic of Congo: Recombination within Enterovirus C Serotypes

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 1779 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inestin Amona ◽  
Hacène Medkour ◽  
Jean Akiana ◽  
Bernard Davoust ◽  
Mamadou Lamine Tall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Species ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Great Ape ◽  
Human Feces ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Healthy Humans ◽  
The Family ◽  
Severe Infections ◽  
The Republic

Enteroviruses (EVs) are viruses of the family Picornaviridae that cause mild to severe infections in humans and in several animal species, including non-human primates (NHPs). We conducted a survey and characterization of enteroviruses circulating between humans and great apes in the Congo. Fecal samples (N = 24) of gorillas and chimpanzees living close to or distant from humans in three Congolese parks were collected, as well as from healthy humans (N = 38) living around and within these parks. Enteroviruses were detected in 29.4% of gorilla and 13.15% of human feces, including wild and human-habituated gorillas, local humans and eco-guards. Two identical strains were isolated from two humans coming from two remote regions. Their genomes were similar and all genes showed their close similarity to coxsackieviruses, except for the 3C, 3D and 5′-UTR regions, where they were most similar to poliovirus 1 and 2, suggesting recombination. Recombination events were found between these strains, poliovirus 1 and 2 and EV-C99. It is possible that the same EV-C species circulated in both humans and apes in different regions in the Congo, which must be confirmed in other investigations. In addition, other studies are needed to further investigate the circulation and genetic diversity of enteroviruses in the great ape population, to draw a definitive conclusion on the different species and types of enteroviruses circulating in the Republic of Congo.

Great ape communication: Cognitive and evolutionary approaches

2002 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 638-638
Author(s):  
Anne E. Russon ◽  
David R. Begun
Keyword(s):  
Communication Studies ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Great Ape ◽  
Ape Communication

There are good arguments for examining great ape communicative achievements for what they contribute to our understanding of great ape cognition and its evolution (Russon & Begun, in press a). Our concern is whether Shanker & King's (S&K's) thesis advances communication studies from a broader cognitive and evolutionary perspective.

scholarly journals Visually attending to a video together facilitates great ape social closeness

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1907) ◽  
pp. 20190488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wouter Wolf ◽  
Michael Tomasello
Keyword(s):  
Human Study ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Social Bonding ◽  
External Stimulus ◽  
Great Ape ◽  
Board Games ◽  
Shared Experiences ◽  
Social Closeness ◽  
Psychological Mechanism

Humans create social closeness with one another through a variety of shared social activities in which they align their emotions or mental states towards an external stimulus such as dancing to music together, playing board games together or even engaging in minimal shared experiences such as watching a movie together. Although these specific behaviours would seem to be uniquely human, it is unclear whether the underlying psychology is unique to the species, or if other species might possess some form of this psychological mechanism as well. Here we show that great apes who have visually attended to a video together with a human (study 1) and a conspecific (study 2) subsequently approach that individual faster (study 1) or spend more time in their proximity (study 2) than when they had attended to something different. Our results suggest that one of the most basic mechanisms of human social bonding—feeling closer to those with whom we act or attend together—is present in both humans and great apes, and thus has deeper evolutionary roots than previously suspected.

scholarly journals Meaning in great ape communication: summarising the debate

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Scott-Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Great Ape ◽  
Ape Communication

scholarly journals Young children spontaneously invent wild great apes’ tool-use behaviours

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1825) ◽  
pp. 20152402 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Reindl ◽  
S. R. Beck ◽  
I. A. Apperly ◽  
C. Tennie
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Great Ape ◽  
Great Similarity ◽  
Physical Cognition ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Over Time

The variety and complexity of human-made tools are unique in the animal kingdom. Research investigating why human tool use is special has focused on the role of social learning: while non-human great apes acquire tool-use behaviours mostly by individual (re-)inventions, modern humans use imitation and teaching to accumulate innovations over time. However, little is known about tool-use behaviours that humans can invent individually, i.e. without cultural knowledge. We presented 2- to 3.5-year-old children with 12 problem-solving tasks based on tool-use behaviours shown by great apes. Spontaneous tool use was observed in 11 tasks. Additionally, tasks which occurred more frequently in wild great apes were also solved more frequently by human children. Our results demonstrate great similarity in the spontaneous tool-use abilities of human children and great apes, indicating that the physical cognition underlying tool use shows large overlaps across the great ape species. This suggests that humans are neither born with special physical cognition skills, nor that these skills have degraded due to our species’ long reliance of social learning in the tool-use domain.

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