Forget the Monkees... Chimps can play rock music

PEOPLE may say they’re monkeying around, but chimpanzees could give drummers a run for their money when it comes to making ‘rock’ music.

By hurling stones at trees, the primates create a bass-like sound which travels hundreds of yards to communicate with others.

And in a sign of chimp intelligence, scientists now believe, the animals select the best trees to make the most noise.

Researchers, filming apes in the west African country of Guinea-Bissau, also threw rocks at the chimps’ favoured tree species and recorded the results with sound equipment usually used by drummers.

Just as humans make guitars and xylophones from certain types of wood, chimpanzees appeared to choose seven tree species with a density and structure least likely to muffle sound, out of more than 40 available. The apes are believed to make the noises to attract a mate, mark their territory or summon their friends.

When a rock weighing 3kg (6.6lb) was thrown against the seven trees, the sound did not immediately get absorbed by the trees or escape into the air.

In all but two of the seven species, the trees had large above-ground roots and when a rock was thrown at them, the noise lasted around 0.006 milliseconds, which was on average three times longer than the sound from hitting the trunk. Dr Ammie

Kalan, study author from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, said: ‘When it comes to chimpanzees, it does appear to be all about that bass. They throw rocks at trees that create more of a bass sound, which is deep and has a low-frequency, a bit like a drum sound.

‘It sounds nicer and travels further, suggesting that chimpanzees too are sensitive to the types of sound that we use in human music.’ The study was published in the journal Biology Letters.