Chimpanzees have an intricate language system experts never thought possible.
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00:00Chimpanzees are one of our closest biological cousins, but while we have an intricate system
00:08of vocal language, they're left with grunts and other simple vocalizations.
00:12Or are they?
00:13According to a new study of thousands of wild chimp recordings from along Africa's ivory
00:17coast, they might have a more complex language than previously thought.
00:21Researchers analyzed around 5,000 chimp recordings, consisting of over 900 hours of vocalizations,
00:27and they found some 390 distinct and unique vocalizations, which they say are much like
00:32sentences, pieced together from other vocalizations to create more complex meanings.
00:37Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology researcher Tatiana Bortolotto had this to
00:42say about the research.
00:43Our findings highlight a vocal communication system in chimpanzees that is much more complex
00:48and structured than previously thought.
00:50The 390 sentences were comprised of just 12 vocalizations, including grunts, barks, screams,
00:57with the researchers adding that this language goes well beyond what anyone thought possible
01:01within the non-human primate community.