[ti:Study Shows Chimps Share Complex Communication System] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:01.60]Scientists who study the evolution of language [00:06.08]say wild chimpanzees have a more complex [00:10.00]communication system than past research has shown. [00:14.64]The researchers say the animal uses more than ten kinds of calls [00:19.88]that can be combined into hundreds of different orders or sequences. [00:26.72]The study team made 4,800 recordings of calls produced by members [00:33.52]of three groups of chimpanzees that live in Ivory Coast's Tai National Park. [00:41.12]The park is one of the last important areas [00:45.04]of old-growth tropical forest in West Africa [00:49.08]and home to many kinds of plants and animals. [00:53.52]Chimpanzees, along with bonobos, [00:57.00]are the closest living relatives to humans. [01:00.76]They are intelligent and highly social. [01:05.16]Chimpanzees make and use tools [01:08.28]and can be taught a small amount of human sign language. [01:13.12]Scientists have long known that chimpanzees [01:16.44]use different calls, or vocalizations, in the wild. [01:21.96]But the new study offered a deeper understanding of their communication. [01:29.08]Cédric Girard-Buttoz was the lead writer of the study [01:33.88]that appeared in the publication Communications Biology. [01:38.56]Girard-Buttoz said of the chimpanzee calls, [01:42.80]"It is not a language but it is amongst the most complex forms [01:48.20]of communication described in a non-human animal." [01:52.64]The call types included what researchers called a grunt, [01:57.76]a panted grunt, a hoo sound, a pant hoot, a bark sound, a panted bark, [02:05.20]a pant, a scream, a panted scream, a whimper, a panted roar [02:12.20]and the non-vocal lip smack and raspberry sounds. [02:17.80]The researchers determined that these call types [02:21.12]were used in 390 different orders or sequences. [02:27.24]"In general 'pant grunt' and 'pant hoot' [02:31.12]are the most common calls used in these sequences," Girard-Buttoz said. [02:37.52]The order in which the chimpanzees produced the calls appeared to follow rules, [02:44.00]although the study did not include ideas about any possible meanings. [02:50.40]Girard-Buttoz said the study was important [02:53.76]because it shows the beginning of communication [02:57.36]that could have been the starting point of the evolution [03:01.16]toward "syntax in our language." [03:04.20]Syntax is the way in which words are put together [03:08.52]to form full sentences or phrases. [03:13.04]The researchers want to learn whether the sequences communicate wider meanings. [03:18.48]They have suspicions about the possible meanings of some vocalizations. [03:25.48]Girard-Buttoz said researchers need to [03:28.68]"explore in detail" the situations surrounding these calls. [03:34.72]He added that researchers need to do "playback experiments [03:38.80]to see if the suspected meaning matches with the behavioral reaction [03:44.20]of chimpanzees when they hear the call." [03:47.52]The researchers are not sure if chimpanzee vocal communication [03:53.00]is similar to the beginnings of language in human evolutionary history. [03:58.16]Humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor [04:02.64]but split into separate evolutionary families perhaps 7 million years ago. [04:08.92]I'm John Russell. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM