Chimp drumming may be a clue to the origin of rhythm. The piece has a video
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Some previous studies suggested chimps in captivity drum with rhythm, but this is the first paper to comprehensively show the same is true of wild chimps, says Valérie Dufour, an animal cognition biologist at the French national research agency CNRS and the University of Clermont Auvergne who was not involved in the work.
The two subspecies of chimp also combined their drumming with pant hooting and swaying in different ways. The western chimpanzees typically began drumming earlier in the vocalization sequence—during the build-up phase—whereas eastern chimpanzees often delayed drumming until they uttered a climactic scream. The researchers think these different drumming styles could be influenced by the social dynamics of each subspecies: Eastern chimps live in big groups and tend to be more aggressive with their neighbors, whereas western chimps live in smaller, more egalitarian groups.
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