Chimpanzee language: Communication gestures translated

Researchers say they have translated the meaning of gestures that wild chimpanzees use to communicate, the BBC reported.

They say wild chimps communicate 19 specific messages to one another with a "lexicon" of 66 gestures.

The scientists discovered this by following and filming communities of chimps in Uganda, and examining more than 5,000 incidents of these meaningful exchanges.

The research is published in the journal Current Biology.

Dr Catherine Hobaiter, who led the research, said that this was the only form of intentional communication to be recorded in the animal kingdom.

Only humans and chimps, she said, had a system of communication where they deliberately sent a message to another individual.

"That's what's so amazing about chimp gestures," she told BBC News.

"They're the only thing that looks like human language in that respect."

Although previous research has revealed that apes and monkeys can understand complex information from another animal's call, the animals do not appear to use their voices intentionally to communicate messages.

This was a crucial difference between calls and gestures, Dr Hobaiter said.

"It's a bit like if you pick up a hot cup of coffee and you scream and blow on your fingers," she said.

"I can understand from that that the coffee was hot, but you didn't necessarily intend to communicate that to me."