| In the wild, chimpanzees live in a
highly organized society and have a varied communication system in which
they use visual, auditory, olfactory, and tactile signals including gestures,
body language and approximate two dozen vocal calls to communicate with
others in their band. Althought there is little known about these
vocalizations, they seem to be limited to expressing emotional states.
(1)
In Early studies, Emil Wenzel worked with wild chimpanzees to see if he could decipher their natural language. He would hide food, a toy or a snake and then take the leader of the group and show it the hiding spot. He then waited to see what would happen. The leader did lead the group to the hiding spot and there were definite differences in behaviour depending on what was hidden. But there remains a question as to whether the leader actually communicated to the group or if they were just merely playing "follow the leader". (2) |
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