back to article GRUNTY CHIMPS 'blend in among locals' after moving to Scotland

Chimps imported to a Scottish zoo have learned to grunt like the locals, boffins have discovered, in a finding sure to wobble a few linguistic applecarts. Nine immigrant primates from a safari park in the Netherlands had been accustomed to using high pitched moans to call for apples, their favourite food, but all this changed …

  1. ravenviz Silver badge
    Coat

    The guest chimps must have been right out of kilter when they arrived!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    Maybe...

    Maybe they just have a different tonal expression for deep-fried apples in batter.

    1. dogged

      Re: Maybe...

      So they've swapped "er, excuse me? may I have some fruit, good sir?" for "see you, pal - gi'us that apple or ah'll put in the heid"?

      1. AbelSoul
        Trollface

        Re: Maybe...

        Am I right or am I wrangutan?

      2. smudge
        Facepalm

        Re: Maybe...

        "So they've swapped "er, excuse me? may I have some fruit, good sir?" for "see you, pal - gi'us that apple or ah'll put in the heid"?"

        Michty me, no! This is not Glasgow, this is Edinburgh Zoo, in the posh area of Corstorphine. What the poor beasts have learned is "You'll have had your tea, then?".

  3. Chris King
    Pint

    Or maybe it's...

    Six pints o'heavy, landlord !

  4. Little Mouse
    Boffin

    Why stop there?

    Lets ship half of them to Wolverhampton next, and see what they end up sounding like.

    For Science, of course.

  5. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

    adapting

    when in Rome er... Edinburgh

  6. scrubber
    Flame

    Bloody whiny foreigners...

    ...coming over here, taking our apples.

  7. Tikimon
    Devil

    Resistance is futile!

    There is a risk, when observing other animals, that we will interpret their behavior through human values. We are right to be cautious about that. However, it has been taken far too far. Researchers resist ANY hint that an animal is doing something comparable to a human behavior.

    This is pure hubris, based on the fallacy that we are not animals and are totally different from Them. We are not in fact special or different in any way, only in the degree of expression of certain behaviors.

    Of course the chimps can learn to use the local vernacular! They don't simply vocalize at random because they're "aroused", how stupid. They want to communicate, and have learned what is the most effective locally.

    1. TitterYeNot

      Re: Resistance is futile!

      "This is pure hubris, based on the fallacy that we are not animals and are totally different from them. "

      Well said, that man. And this one...

      "Some of the monkeys read Nietzsche. The monkeys argue about Nietzsche; without given any consideration to the fact that Nietzsche...was just another monkey."

      Ernest Cline - Dance, Monkeys, Dance

    2. Soap Distant

      Re: Resistance is futile!

      Spot on Tikimon. Us humans have become far to used to suspending disbelief to realise that the rest of the animal kingdom just has common sense!

      SD

    3. Wzrd1 Silver badge

      Re: Resistance is futile!

      "There is a risk, when observing other animals, that we will interpret their behavior through human values."

      Fair enough, although in this case, one order of chimpanzee was observing another, hairier variety of chimpanzee. The genetics don't lie.

      "Of course the chimps can learn to use the local vernacular!"

      Most certainly! Why, I've learned both proper English and Arabic via exposure to both groups in an environment foreign to myself and the UK citizens.

      Although, I must admit an entire uncertainty as to *what* that chap from Liverpool was speaking.

      Both sets of groups also learned a bit of American English, an abuse of the originating language by any measure of extremes.

      "They want to communicate, and have learned what is the most effective locally."

      See my two points above.

  8. Identity
    Coat

    Is 't niet mogelijk?

    Dat zij hebben vertaalen geleerde? Och, aye...

  9. swampdog

    chimp <-> human

    Can we sure it's not the other way around?

    1. Sarah Balfour
      FAIL

      Re: chimp <-> human

      Sorry to spoil the 'joke', but we didn't evolve from apes - we share a common ancestor who lived around 6 million (WHEW! I'm cured!) years ago.

      Or, as the idiot creationists would put it "If we came from monkeys, why's there still monkeys…?"

      Apes are our closest living relatives <insert your own mother-in-law/aunt/uncle/cousin/granddad, etc., gag here>.

      1. Mark 85

        Re: chimp <-> human

        I prefer the Mark Twain answer: "God created man. He then created the monkey to atone for it."

    2. Wzrd1 Silver badge

      Re: chimp <-> human

      Fair enough.

      So, go into a bar near a taxominists convention and ask the following question:

      "Is it Pan Troglodytes or Homo Troglodytes, is it Homo Sapiens or Pan Sapiens"?

      Then, stand off to the side for the bar room brawl.

      For, genetically, our common ancestor wasn't that far off and there actually is a bit of heated discussion on just that subject.

  10. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    Cell?

    Cell's a cytology journal. However the cell.com domain also hosts Current Biology which is where this paper is published.

  11. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

    Sprinkles vss deep fried Mars bars

    I'm sorry but the answer is blindingly obvious in the cadences required to wonder: "Hey, verish my shprinkelsh?" when compared to: "Oof! Fck! This Mars bars' 'ot, fookin Jimmy, ugh!!".

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I WANT CAESAR TO HAVE A GLASWEGIAN ACCENT IN THE NEXT ONE!

    I hope you're reading this Mr Andy Serkis?

  13. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

    Cells.

    I wonder if they would take on the voice qualities of the average human around here. Sitting in my front room with the doors and windows closed to keep out the cold winter air, I had to get up to check on the kind of creature that can be heard across the road through double glazing from inside a closed car, speaking on a phone.

    (The driver didn't seem worried that the monkey could get out easily if he learns how the door handles work.)

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