title: Chimpanzee drumming: a spontaneous performance with characteristics of human musical drumming.
abstract: Despite the quintessential role that music plays in human societies by enabling us to release and share emotions with others, traces of its evolutionary origins in other species remain scarce. Drumming like humans whilst producing music is practically unheard of in our most closely related species, the great apes. Although beating on tree roots and body parts does occur in these species, it has, musically speaking, little in common with human drumming. Researchers suggest that for manual beating in great apes to be compared to human drumming, it should at least be structurally even, a necessary quality to elicit entrainment (beat induction in others). Here we report an episode of spontaneous drumming by a captive chimpanzee that approaches the structural and contextual characteristics usually found in musical drumming. This drumming differs from most beating episodes reported in this species by its unusual duration, the lack of any obvious context, and rhythmical properties that include long-lasting and dynamically changing rhythms, but also evenness and leisureliness. This performance is probably the first evidence that our capacity to drum is shared with our closest relatives.
authors.affiliation: 1] Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, University of Strasbourg,23 rue Becquerel 67087 Strasbourg, France [2] Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 7178, 67087 Strasbourg, France [3] Biomedical Primate Research Center, Ethology Research, Lange Kleiweg 161, 2288 GJ Rijswijk, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Valérie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Dufour
authors.affiliation: CeStatS, Institut de Recherche Mathématique Avancée, UMR 7501, Université de Strasbourg &CNRS, 7 rue René-Descartes, 67000 Strasbourg, France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Poulin
authors.affiliation: CEREMA - DTer Est, Acoustics Group, F-67035 Strasbourg Cedex 2, France.
authors.lastname: Charlotte Curé
authors.affiliation: 1] Biomedical Primate Research Center, Ethology Research, Lange Kleiweg 161, 2288 GJ Rijswijk, the Netherlands [2] Utrecht University, Animal Ecology, Padualaan 8, 35845 CH, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Elisabeth H M
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Sterck
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D006801:Humans; D009146:Music; D002679:Pan troglodytes; D011597:Psychomotor Performance