Orangutans Change Their Gestures Until Understood - Ape Charades?
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Of the great apes–a group that includes chimps, gorillas, and bonobos–the orangutan (found only in the tropical rain forests of Sumatra and Borneo islands) is the most endangered, currently. Recent wild fires, tribal conflicts and on-going deforestation has seriously dwindled their total habitat. Some primatologists believe that the orangutan is the closest primate relative to humans–more than even the chimpanzee.
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To be sure, the ape has many seemingly human-like features, most especially, that it is the only ape that actual walks upright, with full extension of the legs, as it clambers along large tropical tree branches. Some biologists (Thorpe, Holder, Crompton) have asserted that it was here, in the tree tops, that bipedalism first arose, as an adaptation to locomotion in tree branches; the behavior to be somehow picked up by or passed on to (much later) early hominid primates (in a “monkey see monkey do” fashion, one supposes).
Other scientists (e.g., Povinelli, et al) have asserted that self-awareness (that necessary feature of higher consciousness) originated first in the “person of the forest” (the translation of the original native Malay term ‘orang-utan’ or orang hutan). This is known as the clambering hypothesis. Orangutans also produce laughter-like vocalizations when they are engaging in physical activities such as wrestling, play chasing, and even tickling.
And now there’s even more experimental evidence pointing to the advanced cognitive capabilities of this orange-haired ape.
Quite recent experiments with orangutans (Pongo abelii) and gestural communication, completed this month by psychologists Cartmill and Byrne (published in Current Biology) produced a remarkable finding: whenever the ape thought it was understood by an observer (in this case, as human with access to food that he ape wanted), it repeated the gesture that it thought “worked”. But if they failed to communicate want they wanted (the tasty fruit), they abandoned this gesture entirely and tried something else. The apes did this with both people, and other orangutans that had been taught the gestural language.
One might jokingly observe that the apes seemed to be training the researchers (but of course, the human researchers, to test this, would pretend not to know what the ape wanted). it was observed that the behavior is similar to the human game of “charades” in which the gestural language is learned, and idea is communicated (attempted), and if the teammate doesn’t “get it”, the gesture maker tries something else until the team mate announces the right answer.
The basic understanding demonstrated by the great apes gesturing: modify one’s signaling (the meaningful gesturing ) until there is a sign that the other (ape or human) understands and cooperates with the achievement of one’ goal or need. Once there’s understanding, repeat.
photo: public domain
