Baby chimpanzees ‘learn’ calls much like humans learn words

Scientists specifically studied chimps’ “unvoiced calls” that do not engage vocal cords, but instead sound like human lip trills. | Photo Credit: Getty Images (This article forms a part of the Science for All newsletter that takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in! Subscribe now! ) The late primatologist Jane Goodall would famously begin her lectures with an exuberant “pant-hoot” crescendo to demonstrate how the subjects of her study, chimpanzees, communicate with each other over long distances.

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