Biology Great apes rarely speak directly to their offspring
Great apes rarely address their babies directly. While humans around the world speak baby talk to their infants, this behavior is almost completely absent in our closest relatives.
25.06.2025, 20:00
SDA
These are the findings of a new study by an international research team led by the Universities of Zurich (UZH) and Neuchâtel (Unine). The researchers recorded the linguistic environment to which the infants of bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans were exposed in the wild. The study was published on Wednesday evening in the journal "Science Advances".
"We were surprised at how little of this type of communication we could actually observe in our closest living relatives," explained co-author Franziska Wegdel from UZH in a press release from the universities about the study.
According to the researchers, these findings could provide important clues to the evolutionary origins of human language.
