Female Gibbons Dance to Their Own Tune

Researchers have found that female gibbons sometimes move in ways that look for all the world like dancing. Zoologist Kai Caspar and colleagues have analyzed these stylized movements in a study to be published in the journal Primates (a preprint is available here).

Caspar teamed up with Camille Coye, a primatologist at the Institut Jean Nicod in Paris, and also enlisted the services of Pritty Patel-Grosz, a linguistics professor at the University of Oslo who studies dance and gesture. The team surveyed zoos and other facilities that work with four species of crested gibbons, as well as primatologists in the field who observe the creatures in the wild.

They all agree: female gibbons get their groove on.“The body becomes stiff, and then these robot-dance-like movements commence,” Caspar tells the New York Times.

The researchers are calling it dancing because the movement is intentional, rhythmic, and does not appear to serve a material purpose, unlike, say, walking or scratching an itch. “Those key traits are shared between human and gibbon dance,” Caspar says.

All of the dancers observed are adult females, and they usually perform with their backs to the viewer, whether the viewer is a male partner or human. An ape will sway and dip in silent rhythms, often peeking over her shoulder to see if her intended audience is watching. 

The scientists can understand why gibbon girls strut their stuff before their mates, but it is unclear why they perform in front of humans. They might just enjoy the attention.

Photo credit: Thắng-Nhật Trần via Pexels