Orangutans Play Charades
Humans are, in many ways, just slightly more efficient apes. We have tools, language, and cooperation allowing us to be the dominant species on the planet. Orangutans, however, already show behaviors all too similar to ours. They have strong bonds between individuals, have a unique social structure, and utilize crude apparatuses to obtain food. Now, though, it has been shown that orangutans enjoy a game of charades as much as any human.
While humans may use mime as a form of entertainment, orangutans use it as a form of legitimate communication. In an experiment by Richard Byrne of St. Andrews University, Scotland, it was tested how orangutans use gestures to facilitate a specific response. Byrne and his colleague, Erica Cartmill, put the apes in situations where they would need to “ask” for a specific foodstuff. The apes were presented with a highly appealing foodstuff, and a less appealing one.
The researchers themselves, though, did not always respond appropriately to the apes gestures, sometimes handing over the wrong food, or less than was asked for. The responses of the apes changed with every test. If the wrong results were achieved from their gesticulations, the orangutans would alter the signs to remove the misunderstandings. If the results were partially in favor of the orangutan’s aims, it would focus on already successful gestures and repeat them. The apes tried to avoid failed signs and only focus on those that got results.
In other words, orangutans have a language. It is crude and primitive, but it may shed light into the origins of human language itself. On its own, the experiment allowed for a bridge in human-ape communication. One can only postulate how far this will lead in interspecies communication as a whole.
Original article: http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070801_charades.htm
Posted by Jacob Lane (2)
Humans and orangutans are both primates. We share 99% of our DNA with them, and there is a reason why primates are used as the final test for many pharmaceutical drugs. We learned that chimps have 66 distinct gestures, and 24 of those are family typical. Orangutans are part of that family. Primates (including us) are amazing creatures.
ReplyDeletePosted by Michael Shi
It's crazy to think that they are able to adjust their form of communication so that humans, the receiver, can understand them. It is really different because we usually see change in signal via vocal communication rather than a display. Also a change in the signal is usually a human quality rather than a non-human. A lot of cases if the signal isn't received properly then there is a negative outcome.
ReplyDeletePosted by Jobin Oommen
I wonder how long it took each orangutan to alter their response? Did it only take one misunderstood gesture for the orangutan to correct their movements, or did they continue to repeat their original charade a few times before learning that they had to do something differently? Did their gestures change depending on what food was being offered to them?
ReplyDeleteWe already know that humans and other primates can communicate- we have been doing it for years. We have taught gorillas to sign in the past. It is interesting that we find these similarities in human and animal communication to be through a visual modality. This may infer that while we primates evolved speech, orangutans may evolve with better means of physical and tactile communication.
Above comment posted by Chelsea Van Thof
ReplyDeleteWow, I am not sure I have ever really heard of an animal shifting its communication to clarify its message. That is a really interesting finding. This makes me wonder if there is anything of the sort found in crows or parrots because both of these creatures have high levels of intelligence.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that they did not just get frustrated at not getting the reward or the item they desire is amazing. I wonder how this characteristic evolved? Why was it important to survival and mating success? My guess would be that if there was not clear communication there could be a negative shaping factors such as starvation or becoming some predators lunch.
Last Post by Caroline Adams
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting article. I find it similar to mine, but you keep a focus on orangutans. Last week, I found a lot of information on how chimpanzee gestures are similar to primitive gestures made by human infants. I found that most chimps are likely to use their right hand for making a gesture because its controlled by the left side of their brain which is responsible for communication development. I wonder if the same phenomena is viewed in orangutans. I do agree with you that the origin of human communication is related to gestures in apes. Though we are still left with the question of how did we develop vocalization? Were you able to find any examples of an orangutan vocalizing?
ReplyDeletePosted by Nick Gast