• Posted May 17, 2025

Chimpanzees' Drumming May Be Ancient Form of Communication

SATURDAY, May 17, 2025 (HealthDay News) — When a chimp pounds rhythmically on a towering tree root deep in the jungle, it may be doing more than just making noise. 

A new study suggests that drumming could be one of the earliest forms of communication shared by chimpanzees and humans, The Associated Press reported.

Chimpanzees have been found to drum on tree roots with steady patterns of rhythms, a behavior that may date back millions of years.

“Our ability to produce rhythm — and to use it in our social worlds — that seems to be something that predates humans being human,” study co-author Catherine Hobaiter, a primatologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, told AP.

The research was published in the journal Current Biology.

The team studied 371 drumming episodes by chimpanzees. They found that the chimps “clearly play their instruments — the tree trunks — with regular rhythms,” said University of Amsterdam music cognition researcher Henkjan Honing.

When traveling through the rainforest, chimps often slap the tall roots of trees. These low sounds can travel more than a kilometer through a forest.

Scientists theorize that the drumming helps chimps tell others where they are or which direction they are going, AP said.

“It’s a way of socially checking in,” Hobaiter explained. Each chimp has its own unique pattern of beats, helping other chimps recognize who is drumming.

The study also found that chimps from different areas drum differently. Western chimps keep a steady beat, while eastern chimps mix short and long beats.

Chimps are known to use tools such as rocks to crack nuts and sticks to pull termites from mounds. Researchers say that tree roots are another type of tool as well.

Chimps are very selective about which ones they use, according to study co-author Catherine Crockford. 

Some types of wood create sounds that travel better through the jungle, said Crockford, head of the Ape Social Mind Lab at the CNRS Institute for Cognitive Sciences in Lyon, France.

The drumming is likely “a very important way to make contact,” she added.

In another study in Science Advances, she and other researchers showed that chimpanzees also combine sounds to create new meanings. 

For example, combining a resting call and a play call became an invitation to nest together for the night.

“We have probably underestimated the flexibility and complexity of animal communication,” Crockford explained.

More information

Project Chimps has more on chimpanzee communication.

SOURCE: The Associated Press, May 9, 2025