The leaf-clipping display: A newly-discovered expressive gesture in wild chimpanzees

Journal of Human EvolutionPublished 1 February 1980

Toshisada Nishida

DOI10.1016/0047-2484(80)90068-8

Source URL

Citations195

SJR quartileQ1

SJR score1.39

SNIP1.11

TL;DR

Chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains, Tanzania were discovered to show an expressive gesture using leaves, termed as "leaf-clipping display", which may probably be one example of the tradition drift in wild chimpanzees.

Abstract

Chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains, Tanzania were discovered to show an expressive gesture using leaves, termed as "leaf-clipping display". This behavioural signal is directed by an adult male to an estrous female as a possessive behaviour, or by an adolescent male as a courtship display, or by an estrous female to an adolescent male also as a solicitation of copulation. The signal also is used toward human observers as a signal of food-demanding. This behaviour pattern might originate in a displacement tool-making behaviour in conflict situations. The leaf-clipping display has not been observed in any other chimpanzee populations studied, and may probably be one example of the tradition drift in wild chimpanzees.

Keywords

PsychologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

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