Chimpanzees Use Drumming Beats to Communicate With Each Other Even When Kilometers Apart

Humans have Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and other social media devices to communicate. Now, researchers from the University of St. Andrews found that chimpanzees, too, have social media that lets them send messages to their friends even at more than 3,208 feet (1 kilometer) away.

Scientists discovered that they take advantage of the huge buttress roots of trees to carry the sounds of drumming beats with their hands and feet throughout the forests, BBC reported. They observed this behavior in Uganda's Budongo Forest, where chimpanzees have a regular rhythm in their tapping.

(Photo: Pixabay/suju-foto)
Chimpanzees Use Their Drumming Beats to Communicate With Each Other Even When Kilometers Apart

Wild Chimpanzees and Their Signature Drumming Style

The researchers followed and studied chimpanzees in the Budongo Forest and observed their drumming behavior to send out messages to one another through tree roots.

In their study, titled "The form and function of chimpanzee buttress drumming," published in the journal Animal Behavior, the signature rhythms allow these nonhuman primates to send information over long distances and reveal where each other is at and what they are doing.

Dr. Catherine Hobaiter, one of the researchers, told BBC Radio 4's Inside Science program that the wild chimpanzees use huge tee roots as a large wooden surface to drum using their hands and feet. She explained that the sound from tapping those roots resonates and makes a deep, booming sound that travels throughout the forest.

Furthermore, male chimpanzees use distinct patterns of beats. They combine it with long-distance vocalizations known as pant-hoots, while other animals drum on the roots at different points.

Vesta Eleuteri from the University of Vienna, a Ph.D. student and the lead researcher, described how some chimpanzees have more regular rhythms, like rock and blue drummers, while some have variable rhythms that sound like jazz.

The team also observed that these signature rhythms are only used when the chimpanzees travel. Researchers think that the animals may sometimes choose whether or not to reveal their identity, especially when the big alpha male is present, because they would not want to give up their game away.

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Researchers Learned to Recognize Chimps' Drumming Beats

Eleuteri noted that the drumming beats of chimps resemble the social media of humans as it allows them to communicate with each other. MailOnline reported that even the researchers who have been studying the chimpanzees for a while have learned to recognize some drumming beats.

For example, one chimp named Tristan, the John Bonham of the forest, makes a very fast drumming rhythm with several separate beats. He drums so fast that researchers said they could barely see his hands.

Also, the alpha male named Ben has his unique drumming style by making two closely following beats separated by one or two distant beats.

Eleuteri pointed out that the drumming rhythms of chimpanzees are so distinctive that it became easy for them to pick up some distinct chimpanzee beats. Dr. Hobaiter explains that the chimps may not need to say goodbye since they could effectively communicate via the roots, allowing them to check in with one another.

Understanding these drumming beats of chimpanzees help scientists distinguish the real difference between nonhuman primates and humans and also gives insights into how the differences might have come about.