Hand-clapping as a communicative gesture by wild female swamp gorillas

@article{Kalan2009HandclappingAA,
  title={Hand-clapping as a communicative gesture by wild female swamp gorillas},
  author={Ammie K. Kalan and Hugo J. Rainey},
  journal={Primates},
  year={2009},
  volume={50},
  pages={273-275}
}
Hand-clapping is a form of gestural communication commonly observed in captive great apes yet only isolated instances of this behaviour have been documented in the wild. Nearly 20 years ago Fay recorded the first observations of hand-clapping in western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in the Central African Republic. Here we present observations of Likouala swamp gorillas using hand-clapping as a form of gestural communication in previously undocumented contexts in the wild. We… 
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16 Citations

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TLDR
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TLDR
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The similar behavioral responses to drumming and vocal sounds, and their shared neural representation, suggest a common origin of primate vocal and nonvocal communication systems and support the notion of a gestural origin of speech and music.
Four principles of bio-musicology
  • W. Fitch
  • Biology, Medicine
    Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
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TLDR
Four core components of human musicality are highlighted—song, drumming, social synchronization and dance—as widespread and pervasive human abilities spanning across cultures, ages and levels of expertise.
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