"Professor Hobaiter, from the University of St Andrews, has spent her career carefully studying ape communication, including the use of gestures. 'One of the ones we've looked at recently is leaf clipping, where they basically are tearing or plucking leaves,' she said. 'This is basically chimp flirting. It's like a chimp pick-up line - you tear a little leaf at someone to show you like them.'"
"She explained the gesture is mostly carried out by males to attract females, but 'it can go both ways'. 'You certainly get some females who will use it,' she said. 'It's almost like when teenage girls are trying to work out how to get attention. 'You get lots of lovely examples of it as everyone's trying to work out the rules for this new phase of life.'"
"Professor Hobaiter said the ripping or tearing of leaves makes a very distinct sound, which can be heard from quite far away. However, some individuals carefully pluck leaves off a branch instead. 'It's silent, like plucking daisy petals,' she explained. 'Like a "She loves me, she loves me not" pile of leaves.'"
Adolescent chimpanzees use leaf clipping—either ripping leaves to make a loud sound or plucking leaves silently—as a courtship gesture. The behaviour functions as flirting or a ‘‘pick-up line,’’ commonly performed by males but also by females. Loud ripping can advertise interest broadly, while silent plucking can be used for discretion to avoid rivals. The action resembles human teenage attempts to gain attention during a new social phase. Observations in two neighbouring East African chimpanzee communities in Uganda show the gesture used for flirting with distinct technique differences, indicating cultural variation.
Read at Mail Online
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]