新的研究揭示了猩猩的“語言”

新的研究揭示了猩猩的“語言”

It might sound like a squeak, a kiss, and raspberry to us, but this is how some of our ginger-haired great ape cousins tell one another to "go away" or “gimme that.”

對我們來說，這可能聽起來像是尖叫、親吻和樹莓的聲音，但這是我們的一些姜色頭發(fā)的類人猿親戚告訴彼此“走開”或“給我那個”的方式。

A new study led by the University of Exeter in the UK and the Borneo Nature Foundation set about to decipher the vocal calls and gestures of wild orangutans. Reported in the International Journal of Primatology, the results are essentially an orangutan-to-human dictionary.

由英國埃克塞特大學(xué)和婆羅洲自然基金會領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的一項新研究開始破譯野生猩猩的叫聲和手勢。該研究結(jié)果發(fā)表在《國際靈長類學(xué)雜志》上，其本質(zhì)是一部猩猩與人類之間的字典。

The team headed to the forests of Borneo and documented the communication of wild orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii), especially between mothers and their children. Over a period of two years, a total of 681 hours of video footage captured almost 1,300 different types of communication signals.

研究小組前往婆羅洲的森林，記錄了野生猩猩(Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii)之間的交流，尤其是母親和孩子之間的交流。在兩年的時間里，總共681小時的視頻記錄了近1300種不同的通信信號。

They identified 11 vocal signals and 21 physical gestures that had eight specific motives, including "acquire object" (signaller wants something), "climb on me", "climb on you", "climb over", "move away", "play change: decrease intensity", "resume play", and "stop that."

他們識別了11種聲音信號和21種身體動作，它們有8種特定的動機，包括“獲得目標(biāo)”(信號者想要什么)、“爬到我身上”、“爬到你身上”、“爬過去”、“走開”、“游戲改變:降低強度”、“繼續(xù)游戲”和“停止游戲”。

These goals were communicated through a number of different sounds, including grumbles, cries, croaks, and raspberries. Some of the calls were also surprisingly complex, such as making a “kiss squeak” but changing the noise by cupping a hand around the mouth or putting a leaf in front of their lips.

這些目標(biāo)通過一些不同的聲音來傳達，包括抱怨、哭泣、嘶嘶聲和覆盆子聲。有些叫聲也出乎意料地復(fù)雜，比如發(fā)出“接吻吱吱聲”，但會通過用手捂住嘴或在嘴唇前放一片樹葉來改變聲音。