<Note> Hand Clapping by a Chimpanzee in the Nimba Mountains, Guinea, West Africa

Abstract

INTRODUCTION We report the first observation of hand clapping by a wild chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) in the Nimba Mountains in Guinea, West Africa. Hand clapping has previously been reported only for captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). There, chimpanzees have been seen to clap hands in the context of potential food availability to attract the attention of humans1, 2 and as a gesture during play3. Also, bonobos (Pan paniscus) in the San Diego Zoo handand foot-clapped during grooming4, presenting a unique local tradition that has been transmitted to new individuals introduced into the group5, 6. For wild great apes, hand clapping has been seen only in one female mountain gorilla (Gorilla gorilla beringei) in the Virunga Mountains, Rwanda7, and in several female and young western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in southwestern Central African Republic8. Most cases in which hand clapping was seen in western lowland gorillas were when the gorillas were nervous about the presence of the human observers8. Our chimpanzee study site is in a part of the Nimba Mountains near the village of Seringbara (7°37’50.0”N, 8°27’44.7”W) in southeastern Guinea. The Seringbara study area covers about 25 km2 and is 6 km southeast of Bossou, where a community of 12–23 chimpanzees has been studied since 19769, 10. Occasional surveys in the Nimba area have been ongoing since 1992. However, no constant research presence in the Nimba Mountains around Seringbara existed before the present study (begun in August 2003) and the chimpanzees remain largely unhabituated.