Chimpanzee communication is a fascinating field of study. I only consider myself lucky I somehow ended up studying chimpanzee gestures. Though I study chimpanzee non-vocal communication. The vocal and auditory side of communication is still highly interesting. The food grunt in particular amazes me, mostly because I too make similar noises when I come across my favorite foods. So let’s play a game! Can you guess whose food grunts are in this video? The answers are at the end of video. No peeking!
In other news, the chimpanzees were also treated to some freshly harvested cattails from Diana today. With one of their favorites bounties harvested, Anthony and I decided to make a lunch forage on Young’s Hill.
Negra raced to the closest and largest of the cattails and made her way back to the Greenhouse.
Jody also grabbed her first cattail of the afternoon, with some sides of carrots and sweet potatoes and a Burrito right behind her.
Annie was also one of the first to snag a cattail and raced every which way collecting some of the other food before making her way back to the Greenhouse to escape some sudden wind.
squeeee! You did it! Okay, gonna go play now. Lol, the best thing this week! Thanks, Chad (and Kelsi)!
well, I stink, because I know the 7, but of the 3, I only know one! (We haven’t had as many opps to hear them). So I only got the third one, whose food grunt sounds like they’re regular “talking” voice.
Hope qe can play ot again! It’s fun!
Ha fun! I get didn’t guess a single one but fun still. I don’t know what it is about chimp noises but it’s soothing to me it’s music to my ears:)
My single guess was way wrong. But I loved listening, and would love to hear them more often. Thanks for the game!
Forever Intertwined…within my Soul…..Latricia
Super fun Idea!!!
WINNER WINNER…
Thank you for the Game…
Forever Intertwined…within my Soul…All my years working with Primate Rescue Missions….Latricia
Just imagining Neggie “racing” anywhere, & for any reason, more than amuses me…I’m still cracking up…
Go for it Girlie…I’m always cheering for you…
I pretty much FLOPPED at the guessing game, although I did think “Mr. Hungry Man,” Willy B, had to be factored in “somewhere,” but in the end even t h a t got cancelled out because I also thought Mr, Bubba must also
be factored in with his legendary love for the chow wagon… It was a fun game to be sure… Miss Mavo cracks me up… : ).
I agree, Debi, you don’t often see the words “Negra raced” together….I guess she abandoned her usual tactic, because she didn’t trust anyone would share…
Yes, tbh, I think this is the first time we’ve heard Mave’s food squeaks. Or Willy’s. We shouldn’t be hard on ourselves, lol!
Great game Chad, however, I am a big fat looser! But it was fun to just listen and focus on nothing but the sounds. I thought the food squeaks #1 were Neggie. And I was thinking #2 was Burrito (even when the low groan made me think of Willy B eating his cabbage!) And, still all wrong, I thought #3 was Jamie but in reality there was a part of me who thought they were all Negra. So funny that I didn’t even consider the Californians, I leaned into those whose sounds I’ve listened to the most.
I’m curious, as their caregivers, do you ID the chimps through their vocalizations, is this part of your initial training like ID’ing the chimps visually? Connecting vocalizations to a specific chimp seems incredibly difficult, but once familiar with the shelter dogs we oftentimes know whose who from a distance by their barks, howls, and yelps.
Some day Chad, you will have to share some of your knowledge on non-verbal communication. Your job, experiences, and educations fascinate me. I have such respect for all of you.
I was thinking “Burrito, Jo” (because of the dinosaur growl), and was gonna say Jamie, and then realized I’d heard the 3rd one before.
I’m pretty sure I could identify Annie’s snake scream from miles away, lol!
Oh…I was TOTALLY stumped, and 0-for-3 in guesses. Are you sure that Willy B can’t have Jody over to join him for Thanksgiving dinner this November? They both have the talent for groaning like contented triceratops at an all-you-can eat pumpkin bar.
Ikr!? That is a playdate that I still want to happen!
I was right with #2 but missed the rest! That was a fun quiz, thanks !
What a grand game! We should do this more.. great fun Chad 🙂 I was off in the woods on #1 for a while thinking Jody or Annie.. but at the last minute I wrote Made down.. I was right about Willy B.. but I guess Mr. B for #3… This is an incredible area of study. In rescuing various critters over my 62 years I have learned to mimic cats/kittens and ferrets quite well… It is very possible to gather meaning from all critter vocalizations. I’m a HUGE fan of this game. Thanks so much for all you.. and all of you.. do.
I failed the test, but it was fun!
That was so fun. They all sound so demanding!.
But I was trying to figure which one was Jamie, so I didn’t guess any right, Next time!
I didn’t guess a single one but then again even after all these years I can’t recognize the faces either but still it was interesting to listen to how different they all are. Really enjoyed hearing the sounds with the blank screen on. How do you people come up with such different ideas for these blogs. You are all amazing being able to write such creative and interesting articles on a daily basis. Blows my mind.