Abstract
Primates form strong and enduring social bonds with others and these bonds have important fitness consequences. However, how different types of communication are associated with different types of social bonds is poorly understood. Wild chimpanzees have a large repertoire of gestures, from visual gestures to tactile and auditory gestures. We used social network analysis to examine the association between proximity bonds (time spent in close proximity) and rates of gestural communication in pairs of chimpanzees when the intended recipient was within 10 m of the signaller. Pairs of chimpanzees with strong proximity bonds had higher rates of visual gestures, but lower rates of auditory long-range and tactile gestures. However, individual chimpanzees that had a larger number of proximity bonds had higher rates of auditory and tactile gestures and lower rates of visual gestures. These results suggest that visual gestures may be an efficient way to communicate with a small number of regular interaction partners, but that tactile and auditory gestures may be more effective at communicating with larger numbers of weaker bonds. Increasing flexibility of communication may have played an important role in managing differentiated social relationships in groups of increasing size and complexity in both primate and human evolution.
Highlights
Arousal than quieter voices, providing further evidence that communication loudness can be used to indicate the intensity of arousal[30,31,32]
Primates with larger neocortices have higher rates of social play[56], more complex male mating strategies[57], higher levels of tactical deception[58], are more likely to form coalitions[59] and have a higher frequency of social learning[60]. Whilst this suggests that primates with larger neocortices do display a higher level of ‘social complexity’ in their behaviour, what is lacking is a systematic and detailed understanding of how contextual understanding of low emotional arousal as expressed in gestural communication is related to the nature of the bonded network–the number and strength of social bonds maintained with others
We compare these measures with our measure of close proximity to validate its use as an indicator of close social bonding
Summary
Arousal than quieter voices, providing further evidence that communication loudness can be used to indicate the intensity of arousal[30,31,32]. Primates with larger neocortices have higher rates of social play[56], more complex male mating strategies[57], higher levels of tactical deception[58], are more likely to form coalitions[59] and have a higher frequency of social learning[60] Whilst this suggests that primates with larger neocortices do display a higher level of ‘social complexity’ in their behaviour, what is lacking is a systematic and detailed understanding of how contextual understanding of low emotional arousal as expressed in gestural communication is related to the nature of the bonded network–the number and strength of social bonds maintained with others. As individuals living in social groups have to both meet their own needs and coordinate their behaviour with others, we predict that this relationship will be seen across different types of contexts, including affiliative and antagonistic contexts[29]
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