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| Communication & Contact |
| Chimpanzees communicate with a wide range of calls, postures, and gestures. "Pant-hoots" are loud piercing calls that carry long distances to identify the individual. Chimps use them in a variety of emotional situations - when requesting the identity of another chimpanzee, upon finding a food source, during feeding bouts, or in times of fear or at joyous times such as reunions. Greetings among chimpanzees often involve embracing, kissing, or reaching out for another's hand. Additionally, facial expressions often communicate such feelings as aggression, frustration, excitement, playfulness, and submission. |
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| Jane's observation: | November 1980 -- Nope is feeding, her infant sleeping in her lap. She barely glances up as
Pom arrives from the east. The younger female pauses, gives two soft grunts, then begins to feed nearby also.
Thirty-five minutes later we hear the pant-hoots of several males farther down the valley. I recognize Goblin's
distinctive voice and Satan is there too. Pom and Nope glance toward the sounds, then continue feeding. The males
call out several times over the next fifteen minutes. Pom consistently looks up but Nope pays no attention.
Suddenly a female screams. Pom stares intently, turns, and with a grin and tiny squeak holds out her hand to
Nope, who briefly touches her fingers. A moment later there is a renewed outburst of calling; at least two
individuals are screaming urgently, one a child, and there are waa-barks of threat. Instantly Pom leaps to her
feet and races toward the sound of conflict. She keeps mostly to a rough trail, so I do not get left too far
behind. We run for some 500 meters. As I burst from a tangle of vines, I see that Pom has found her mother;
they are grooming intently and infant Pax is close beside them. Pax and Passion evidently have been the victims
of an attack, for they have tiny bleeding wounds, he on one ear, she on a toe. Prof, perhaps also involved, is
in a tree above and seems subdued. Suddenly Goblin hurtles from the undergrowth, charging straight for Passion,
Pom, and Pax; screaming, they leap into Prof's tree. Goblin tries to grab Pom's leg, but misses. He displays on
out of sight. A moment later Satan appears and follows him. Passion and her family are left on their own.
Source: Patterns of Behavior, Chapter 6, Introduction. |
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