Pantomime in great apes: Evidence and implications

Abstract

We recently demonstrated, by mining observational data, that forest-living orangutans can communicate using gestures that qualify as pantomime.¹ Pantomimes, like other iconic gestures, physically resemble their referents.^2,3 More elaborately, pantomimes involve enacting their referents.⁴ Holding thumb and finger together at the lips and blowing between them to mean balloon is one example.⁵ Here we sketch evidence of pantomime in other great apes, methodological concerns, and sophisticated cognitive capabilities that great ape pantomimes suggest.

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