20 research outputs found
Intentional communication between wild bonnet macaques and humans
Comparative studies of nonhuman communication systems could provide insights into the origins and
evolution of a distinct dimension of human language: intentionality. Recent studies have provided
evidence for intentional communication in diferent species but generally in captive settings. We report
here a novel behaviour of food requesting from humans displayed by wild bonnet macaques Macaca
radiata, an Old World cercopithecine primate, in the Bandipur National Park of southern India. Using
both natural observations and feld experiments, we examined four diferent behavioural components—
coo-calls, hand-extension gesture, orientation, and monitoring behaviour—of food requesting for their
conformity with the established criteria of intentional communication. Our results suggest that food
requesting by bonnet macaques is potentially an intentionally produced behavioural strategy as all
the food requesting behaviours except coo-calls qualify the criteria for intentionality. We comment on
plausible hypotheses for the origin and spread of this novel behavioural strategy in the study macaque
population and speculate that the cognitive precursors for language production may be manifest in the
usage of combination of signals of diferent modalities in communication, which could have emerged in
simians earlier than in the anthropoid ape
Chimpanzee alarm call production meets key criteria for intentionality
BBSRC-funded, but difficult to identify the specific grant.Determining the intentionality of primate communication is critical to understanding the evolution of human language. Although intentional signalling has been claimed for some great ape gestural signals, comparable evidence is currently lacking for their vocal signals. We presented wild chimpanzees with a python model and found that two of three alarm call types exhibited characteristics previously used to argue for intentionality in gestural communication. These alarm calls were: (i) socially directed and given to the arrival of friends, (ii) associated with visual monitoring of the audience and gaze alternations, and (iii) goal directed, as calling only stopped when recipients were safe from the predator. Our results demonstrate that certain vocalisations of our closest living relatives qualify as intentional signals, in a directly comparable way to many great ape gestures. We conclude that our results undermine a central argument of gestural theories of language evolution and instead support a multimodal origin of human language.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe