{"id":27234,"date":"2023-03-16T16:58:12","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T16:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/roots-rock-chimpanzees-drum-to-their-own-signature-beats"},"modified":"2023-03-16T17:06:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T17:06:05","slug":"roots-rock-chimpanzees-drum-to-their-own-signature-beats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/roots-rock-chimpanzees-drum-to-their-own-signature-beats","title":{"rendered":"Roots rock: Chimpanzees drum to their own signature beats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span>The drummers puff out their chests, let out a guttural yell, then step up to their kits and furiously pound out their signature beat so that everyone within earshot can tell who is playing. The drum kit is the giant gnarled root of a tree in the Ugandan rainforest \u2014 and the drummer is a chimpanzee.<\/p>\n

A new study published Tuesday found that not only do chimpanzees have their own styles \u2014 some preferring straightforward rock beats while others groove to more freeform jazz \u2014 they can also hide their signature sound if they do not want to reveal their location.<\/p>\n

The researchers followed the Waibira chimpanzee group in western Uganda\u2019s Budongo Forest, recording the drum sessions of seven male chimps and analysing the intervals between beats. The chimps mostly use their feet, but also their hands to make the sound, which carries more than a kilometre through the dense rainforest.<\/p>\n

The drumming serves as a kind of social media, allowing travelling chimpanzees to communicate with each other, said Vesta Eleuteri, the lead author of the study published in the journal Animal Behaviour.<\/p>\n

The PhD student said that after just a few weeks in the rainforest she was able to recognise exactly who was drumming. \u201cTristan \u2014 the John Bonham of the forest \u2014 makes very fast drums with many evenly separated beats,\u201d she said, referring to the legendarily hard-hitting drummer of rock band Led Zeppelin.<\/p>\n

Tristan\u2019s drumming \u201cis so fast that you can barely see his hands\u201d, Eleuteri said. Hiding their style But other chimps like Alf or Ila make a more syncopated rhythm using a technique in which both their feet hit a root at almost the same time, said British primatologist Catherine Hobaiter, the study\u2019s senior author.<\/p>\n

The research team was led by scientists from Scotland\u2019s University of St Andrews, and several of the chimpanzees are named after Scottish single malt whiskies, including Ila \u2014 for Caol Ila \u2014 and fellow chimp Talisker. Hobaiter, who started the habituation of the Waibira group in 2011, said it long been known that chimpanzees drummed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it wasn\u2019t until this study that we understood they\u2019re using these signature styles when they\u2019re potentially looking for other individuals \u2014 when they\u2019re travelling, when they\u2019re on their own or in a small group,\u201d she told AFP.<\/p>\n

The researchers also discovered that the chimps sometimes choose not to drum in their signature beat, to avoid revealing their location or identity. \u201cThey have this wonderful flexibility to express their identity and their style, but also to sometimes keep that hidden,\u201d Hobaiter said.<\/p>\n

Michael Wilson, a specialist on chimpanzees at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the research, said the study\u2019s methodology was sound.<\/p>\n

But he was not \u201ccompletely convinced, though, that the drumming is sufficiently distinctive that you could reliably tell all individuals apart,\u201d because some patterns seemed very similar, he said, calling for more research.<\/p>\n

\u2018A sense of music\u2019<\/p>\n

While plenty of animals produce sounds we think of as music \u2014 such as birdsong \u2014 the research could open the door to the possibility that chimpanzees enjoy music on a level generally thought to only be possible for humans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think that chimpanzees, like us, potentially have a sense of rhythmicity, a sense of music, something that touches them on an almost emotional level, in the way that we might have a sense of awe when we hear an amazing drum solo or another kind of dramatic musical sound,\u201d Hobaiter said.<\/p>\n

Most research on the culture of chimpanzees has looked at their tools or food, she said. \u201cBut if we think about human culture we don\u2019t think about the tools we use \u2014 we think about how we dress, the music we listen to,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Next the researchers plan to investigate how neighbouring and far-off communities of chimpanzees drum in their own differing styles. Hobaiter has already been looking at chimpanzees in Guinea, where there are very few trees to drum in the open savannah.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got early hints that they might be throwing rocks against rocks\u201d to make sound, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiteral rock music in this case.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mauritius<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. The drummers puff out their chests, let out a guttural yell, then step up to their kits and furiously pound out their signature beat so that everyone within earshot can tell who is playing. The drum kit is the giant gnarled root of a tree in the Ugandan rainforest \u2014 and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":27233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[233,245,241,991],"class_list":["post-27234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mauritius","tag-mauritius","tag-media"],"yoast_head":"\nRoots rock: Chimpanzees drum to their own signature beats - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The drummers puff out their chests, let out a guttural yell, then step up to their kits and furiously pound out their si ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/roots-rock-chimpanzees-drum-to-their-own-signature-beats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Roots rock: Chimpanzees drum to their own signature beats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The drummers puff out their chests, let out a guttural yell, then step up to their kits and furiously pound out their si ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/roots-rock-chimpanzees-drum-to-their-own-signature-beats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mauritius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-16T16:58:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-16T17:06:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1678973330.28.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/roots-rock-chimpanzees-drum-to-their-own-signature-beats#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/roots-rock-chimpanzees-drum-to-their-own-signature-beats\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Roots rock: Chimpanzees drum to their own signature beats\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-16T16:58:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-16T17:06:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/roots-rock-chimpanzees-drum-to-their-own-signature-beats\"},\"wordCount\":710,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/roots-rock-chimpanzees-drum-to-their-own-signature-beats#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1678973330.28.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mauritius\",\"Mauritius\",\"media\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/roots-rock-chimpanzees-drum-to-their-own-signature-beats#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/roots-rock-chimpanzees-drum-to-their-own-signature-beats\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/roots-rock-chimpanzees-drum-to-their-own-signature-beats\",\"name\":\"Roots rock: Chimpanzees drum to their own signature beats - 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