Chimpanzees have a very personal perception of rhythm, study finds

Inflating their chests, with a guttural cry and holding an instrument, chimpanzees, these peculiar drummers, perform a drum roll using the thick roots of trees in a Ugandan forest, creating their own rhythms, revealed a study published on Tuesday ( 6).

Each one has its own style: some drum to the rhythm of rock and others are more “jazzy”, indicates the work, published in the British magazine Animal Behaviour. But, in addition, these animals know how to change it so as not to reveal where they are.

Scientists followed a group of Waibira chimpanzees in Uganda’s western Budongo forest, recording and analyzing the touches of seven males.

Their sounds propagate up to more than a kilometer through the dense forest and serve as a means of communication for the moving chimpanzees, according to Vesta Eleuteri, the study’s lead author.

This doctoral student claimed to be able to explain who had been playing alone for a few weeks.

“Tristan, the ‘John Bonham’ of the woods, plays the drum very quickly with lots of separate beats regularly,” Eleuteri told AFP, referring to the famous drummer of the legendary rock band Led Zeppelin. His interpretation is “so fast you can barely see his hands,” he adds.

But other chimpanzees, like Alf or Ila, have a more syncopated style, with another technique: they tap the root with both feet at almost the same time, explained British primatologist Catherine Hobaiter, who supervised the study.

drum solo

The research is the work of scientists at the University of Saint Andrews, Scotland, which explains why several chimpanzees were named after whiskey, such as Talisker.

It has long been known that chimpanzees played drums.

“But with this study, we understand that they use their own style when they seek contact with other individuals, travel, are alone or in small groups,” explained Catherine Hobaiter to AFP.

Scientists have also found that chimpanzees sometimes choose not to sign their messages in order not to reveal their identity. “They have the remarkable flexibility to express their identity and style, but also to hide it,” added the researcher.

Although many animals produce sounds that can be associated with music, such as birdsong, chimpanzees may appreciate music in a similar way to humans.

“I think chimpanzees, like us, potentially have a perception of rhythm, of music, something that impacts us on an emotional level, like the emotion that a magnificent drum solo or other important musical sound provokes in us,” said the primatologist.

Studies of chimpanzees focus on their tools or their food, he said.
“When we think about human culture, we don’t think about the tools used, but about how we dress, about the music we listen to,” he said.

Scientists propose to study how other chimpanzee communities produce sounds. They are interested in a species in Guinea, which lives in a savanna with almost no trees that can be used as a drum.

“We have evidence that they could throw rocks at other rocks” to produce sounds.

“Literally, they play rock,” said Catherine Hobaiter, making a play on the English word for rock.