Average Humans Understand Ape Gestures, Study Finds
If you've ever watched the film Doctor Dolittle, you might remember that the main character had a unique ability: he could talk to animals.
It's just a film, of course, and humans can't actually understand what animals are saying — or can we?
According to researchers from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, the average human may actually be able to understand gestures made by apes.
In a study published in PLOS Biology, the researchers tested over 5,600 participants on their ability to understand 10 gestures commonly used by bonobos and chimpanzees to mean things like, "Give me that food," or, "Climb on my back."
The participants were shown 20 videos of ape gestures, and were asked to choose what they thought each gesture meant from a list of four possible answers.
The participants correctly guessed what the gestures meant more than 50% of the time, the results showed.
"We were really surprised by the results," Catherine Hobaiter, one of the researchers, told the BBC.
She said it was very interesting that average people could understand apes so well — "and really quite annoying as a scientist who spent years training how to do it," she added.
According to the researchers, it could be that these gestures are part of a language once shared by all great ape species, including humans.
But it could also just be that humans and apes both have the intelligence to interpret gestures as meaning certain things.
The test is also available to the public — so if you're curious, you can check the Great Ape Dictionary's website to test your primate language skills!
