Humans can recognise and understand chimpanzee and bonobo gestures

Humans retain an understanding of gestures made by other great apes even though we no longer use them ourselves, according to a new study by researchers at the University of St Andrews.

People playing an online game correctly identified more than half of the gestures made by chimpanzees and bonobos in a pioneering experiment run by Dr Kirsty Graham and Dr Catherine Hobaiter from the School of Psychology and Neuroscience. The study is published today (Tuesday 24 January) in open access journal PLOS Biology.

More on this report can be found in the University new article - Humans can recognise and understand chimpanzee and bonobo gestures.

Picture copyright: Dr Catherine Hobaiter.