Chimpanzees talk before going hunting

Agreeing before a hunting trip, or any collective activity, is such complex behavior that it seems typically human.

And yet, what is called "verbal collaboration" is not unique to humanity.

It has been observed in particular in chimpanzees, and could in fact have appeared several million years ago in an ancestor common to modern humans and the great apes.

A team of scientists led by Joseph G. Mine, from the University of Zurich (Germany), studied field data collected between 1996 and 2018 on 307 chimpanzee hunting parties in Uganda.

He demonstrates that the more monkeys manage to communicate, the more their cooperation is fruitful.

Chimpanzees have the particularity of hunting in groups, unlike other great apes.

, explains Victor Narat, CNRS researcher in the eco-anthropology unit…

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