Understanding How Chimpanzees Speak To Each Other

In a loquacious clip from the 2014 BBC show Extraordinary Animals Series 2, primatologist Dr. Katja Liebal observes a troop of chimpanzees at the Twycross Zoo (previously) and explains the various means by which these highly social primates communicate. Liebal also talked about how chimpanzees express their emotions and intent towards others through facial expressions, body gestures. They also learn from each other.

While chimps across the world only have a limited repertoire of vocalizations, they constantly invent and share new gestures with each other. …The theory that chimps imitate each other’s gestures has led some primatologists to believe that this behavior may have also been present in the ancient ancestors of humans and may have led to the languages that we all use today

Liebel stated that she was compiling this data to write dictionary that would help humans “speak chimpanzee”.

She believes that the chimps have their own complex system of communication and hopes to compile the world’s first chimpanzee dictionary

via The Kid Should See This