Orangutans may be able to convey past events as well as humans

by Rodrigo Soldon Souza

A research team at St. Andrew's University in the UK claims that orangutans may be able to "communicate past events to other individuals". "Transmission of past and future events, not current," plays a major role in the prosperity of humans, and if orangutans were able to communicate past and future events, by investigating orangutans " There is a possibility of getting clues to elucidate how human language has evolved.

Time-space-displaced responses in the orangutan vocal system | Science Advances
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/11/eaau3401

Orangutans can communicate about the past just like humans, new research finds
https://theconversation.com/orangutans-can-communicate-about-the-past-just-like-humans-new-research-finds-108288

As a result of enabling human beings to communicate information by words, human beings made great progress in sharing information and knowledge between people. By words, humans are now able to talk about "what happened in the past" and "what will happen in the future", not just "what is in front of us" now. The feature of the language known as this " displaced reference " has penetrated the daily lives of humans and played a major role in the process of humans dominating the earth as it is now.

By using displaced reference when communicating information, it becomes possible to talk about things other than what is currently talking with others in front of one's own eyes, and the amount of information that can be transmitted increases dramatically. Some insects that form social groups are confirmed as nonhuman animals who share information on things not in front of their eyes. For example, a bee can tell you about places like mits, pollen, water sources and new nests by dancing a specific pattern called " dance of bees ". Carl von Frish, who for the first time interpreted the meaning of bee dance, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1973 as a major contributor to the discipline field of animal behavior.

However, biologically, insects such as honey bees are far apart from human beings, and it is difficult to obtain clues to elucidate "How human languages have evolved" even if research on honey dance is advanced And that. Meanwhile, Adriano R. Lameira , a researcher at St. Andrews University, conducted research on orangutans and found that orangutans could transmit information about "what is not here" .

Mr. Lameira's research team simulated "encounter with predator Sumatran tiger" against 7 female orangutans in wild orangutans in the tropical rainforest of Sumatra Island , Indonesia. In the experiment, a researcher disguised as a Sumatran tiger walked around the ground in front of the orangutan, and he searched what kind of voice the orangutan sounded at that time.

As a result, females of orangutans did not show spontaneous response to predators despite the fact that behavior was not suppressed by stress. Instead, they waited for a while even after the Bengal tiger left the place, finally orangutan gave a warning voice. Orangutan opened an interval of about seven minutes on average until he got in touch with a researcher who disguised Bengal Tiger, and some individuals refrained from uttering voices for up to 20 minutes from the contact .

Of course, when you are near the Bengal tiger, setting up your voice and sounds entails great danger. If an orangutan makes a voice immediately after coming in contact with the Bengal tiger, that voice itself can be a cause of death. Therefore, it is a sufficiently understandable reaction that the female of orangutan did not speak. On the other hand, the question arises: "Why did Orangutan issue a warning after why the Bengal tiger left and time passed?"

"At this time, if the mother did not issue a warning after the Bengal tiger departed, the children of the orangutans would not have noticed the threat of Bengal tiger," said Lameira, the warning issued by the time difference is the mother I believe that he was telling the child about the dangers of the Bengal tiger. Given this hypothesis, orangutan is not only about threats in front of you but also information about 'threats that passed through earlier'.

In the 1970s, attempts were made to return orangutans once protected by humans to the wild, but many of them failed. Orangutans bred by humans did not have any knowledge about the dangers of the jungle including the Bengal tiger and became prey to predators without difficulty.

On the other hand, children of orangutan share actions with their mothers for several years, so they can inherit various knowledge and skills from their mothers during this period. The fact about the "delay of warning sound of mother orangutan" discovered by the research team of Mr. Lameira is that the mother orangutan told the child the threat of Bengal tiger "now before the eyes, not before my eyes It is suggesting that it teaches as "what it is."

by Jaime Rey

This hypothesis does not mean that orangutans speak the words, but it shows that apes other than humans can transmit not only current information but also past and future information. By investigating information transmission in the presence close to humans, Lameira can obtain clues as to how human acquired the language ability as it is now and was different from other apes. I mentioned.