Chimpanzees Uses Communication Known as ‘Hunting Bark’ for Them To Hunt Easier

Great apes called chimpanzees can be found in central and western Africa. They seem to be our closest living relatives, sharing 98.7% of our genetic makeup with bonobos.

It is also believed that between seven and thirteen million years ago, an ancestor of both humans and chimpanzees existed.

Chimpanzees and humans both use communication to organize cooperative behavior, like when hunting. Researchers have now discovered that when chimpanzees make a particular vocalization known as the hunting bark, they increase the number of group members who join the hunt and successfully catch their prey.

Chimpanzees' interaction for easy hunting

(Photo : Margaux Ansel/Unsplash)

Chimpanzees occasionally look for opportunities to find meat that is high in protein in addition to foraging for fruit. Chimpanzees are more successful when they are hunting with a partner because they can better catch their agile monkey prey in the canopy, as per ScienceDaily.

For the first time, researchers have discovered that encouraging group members to join the hunt requires effective communication.

Researchers from the University of Zurich (UZH) and Tufts University in Boston have found that the wild apes catalyze group hunting, making this type of cooperative behavior more successful, by making bark vocalizations.

This discovery was made after studying more than 300 hunting events that were observed over the course of the last 25 years at the Kanyawara chimpanzee community in Uganda.

 Joseph Mine, a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Comparative Language Science at UZH, who led the study, chimpanzees that make hunting barks inform those nearby about their desire to hunt. This information may convince people who are hesitant to join, increasing the chances of success all in all.

It can be difficult to hunt monkeys collectively in a dense tropical rainforest in which visibility is constrained. Vocal communication makes group work more effective.

Zarin Machanda, director of the Kanyawara Chimpanzee Project at Tufts University, Strikingly, observed more hunters going to join, greater speed in beginning the chase, and a shorter opportunity to make the first capture in response to the production of hunting barks.

Professor Simon Townsend, who worked on the study, it is currently unclear whether these barks are intentionally given to organize the precise actions of the group or whether they merely advertise an individual's decision to go hunting, increasing the likelihood that others will follow suit and attempting to make the group more effective as a result.

Read more: Chimpanzees Can Communicate with Gestures to Teach Location, Study Finds

Chimpanzees behavior

Chimpanzees are very social animals. A dominant male and his coalition of male allies rule over groups of several dozen animals that make up their communities, as per National Geographic.

Chimpanzees have distinct personalities, with females being much more trusting and timid than males, according to research. As they remove dirt and ticks from one another's bodies, chimpanzees who groom each other develop stronger social bonds.

Of all the great apes, chimpanzees have the broadest range. From central to western Africa, populations can be found in woodlands and grasslands, though many of them reside in tropical rainforests.

They typically construct leaf nests for themselves while sleeping in trees, usually the stout Ugandan ironwood tree, which provides the firmest and most stable sleeping surface.

Of all the great apes, chimpanzees have the broadest range. From central to western Africa, populations can be found in woodlands and grasslands, though many of them reside in tropical rainforests.

 They typically construct leaf nests for themselves while sleeping in trees, usually the stout Ugandan ironwood tree, which provides the firmest and most stable sleeping surface.

Related Article: Chimpanzees Learn Local Language After Moving