In pursuit of a specific goal like hunting for food, chimpanzees use hand gestures to communicate with each other, according to a Georgia State University study.
The new study was conducted by researchers from the University's Language Research Center to understand how two language-trained chimpanzees communicated with a human experimenter to find food. The study included a chimpanzee coordinating with a human to find a piece of food hidden in a large outdoor area. While the chimpanzee was made aware of where the food was hidden, the human experimenter was not.
Researchers noted that the animal used hand gestures like pointing toward the area where the food was hidden to guide the human in the right direction.
"It allows the chimpanzees to communicate information in the manner of their choosing, but also requires them to initiate and to persist in communication," Dr. Charles Menzel, a senior research scientist at the Language Research Center, said in a press statement. "The chimpanzees used gestures to recruit the assistance of an otherwise uninformed person and to direct the person to hidden objects 10 or more meters away. Because of the openness of this paradigm, the findings illustrate the high level of intentionality chimpanzees are capable of, including their use of directional gestures. This study adds to our understanding of how well chimpanzees can remember and communicate about their environment."
Dr. Anna Roberts of the University of Chester said that the findings of this study were important because they might provide an insight in to the "building blocks of the evolution of language." Menzel also noted that the findings of this study have helped scientists better understand how well chimpanzees can remember and communicate in their environment.
This is not the first time scientists have discovered chimpanzees have innate characteristics that sometimes puts them at par with humans, if not higher. Previously researchers from Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute conducted a study that revealed these animals have a better memory power than humans. It is this powerful short-term or working memory of chimpanzees that allows them to survive in the wild where they have to make complex decisions in an instant.
A similar study conducted by University of St Andrews researchers in October 2013, found that elephants use trunks to gesture and communicate
"What elephants share with humans is that they live in an elaborate and complex network in which support, empathy, and help for others are critical for survival," said Professor Richard Byrne, according to The Telegraph. "It may be only in such a society that the ability to follow pointing has adaptive value, or more generally, elephant society may have selected for an ability to understand when others are trying to communicate with them, and they are thus able to work out what pointing is about when they see it."
Similarly, dogs wag their tail to communicate, according to University of Trento researchers. However, here the communication has more to do with emotions than information, the researchers pointed out in a statement.
