Chimps share ‘building blocks of musical rhythm’ with humans
Just like humans, chimps have rhythm when drumming, which suggests that the trait evolved in our common ancestor
By James Woodford
9 May 2025
A juvenile chimpanzee drumming in Bossou, Guinea
Cyril Ruoso/naturepl.com
Musicality may have emerged in a common ancestor of chimps and humans, as both species share similarities in how they drum.
Catherine Hobaiter at the University of St Andrews, UK, and her colleagues examined 371 examples of drumming from two of Africa’s four chimpanzee subspecies: the western chimpanzee and the eastern chimpanzee .
Read more
Are animals conscious? We’re finally realising that many species are
Advertisement
They use their hands and feet to produce rapid-fire drumming, often on buttress roots and mainly when resting, while travelling or during threat displays.
Hobaiter says that while chimpanzees drum regularly, rainforests are really difficult places to carry out studies and for some of the populations, it has taken decades to collect the data.
Eventually, the researchers found that chimps drum much faster than most humans. “The longest drum we recorded was over 5 seconds, while the shortest was less than 0.1 seconds,” says Hobaiter. “But chimpanzees will also repeat these drumming bouts several times, especially when they’re travelling.”
