Bonobo Behaviour
Peeps were produced in functionally flexible ways in some contexts, but not others. Crucially, calls didn't vary acoustically between neutral and positive contexts, suggesting that recipients take pragmatic
information into account to make inferences about call meaning. In comparison, peeps during negative contexts were acoustically distinct. It has
evolutionary roots that predate the
evolution of human speech. Our data suggest that the capacity for functional flexibility we interpret this evidence as an example of an
evolutionary early transition faraway from fixed vocal
signalling towards functional flexibility. A shared principle within the
evolution of language and therefore the development of speech is that the emergence of functional flexibility, the capacity of vocal signals to precise a variety of emotional states which does not depend on context and function. Functional flexibility has recently been demonstrated within the vocalisations of pre-linguistic human infants, which has been contrasted to the functionally fixed vocal behaviour of non-human primates. With a study on our closest living
primate relatives, the bonobo (Pan paniscus) Here, we revisited the presumed chasm in functional flexibility between human and non-human
primate vocal behaviour. Wild bonobos use a selected call type (the “peep”) across a variety of contexts that cover the complete valence range (positive-neutral-negative) daily activities, including aggression, feeding, travel, alarm, nesting, rest.
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