Stone-assisted drumming in Western chimpanzees and its implications for communication and cultural transmission

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) communicate in complex ways, including sounds produced by hand and foot drumming on trees, often combined with loud vocalisations. Recently, a puzzling stone throwing behaviour at trees was observed, resulting in stone piles at tree buttresses. It is a rare case of tool use for communication in animals and suggested to function like buttress drumming in long-distance communication and male displays. We tested this hypothesis by determining the behavioural dynamics in comparison to hand and foot tree buttress drumming in Western chimpanzees in Boé, Guinea Bissau. Using camera traps, we show that in 78% of cases, stones were picked up at trees, not leading to further stone accumulation beyond the already existing stone piles. Stone assisted and hand and foot drumming occurred separately or were combined in similar behavioural contexts in apparent long-distance communication and highly aroused behavioural contexts. Yet, immediately before stone drumming, chimp..., , , # Stone-assisted drumming in Western chimpanzees and its implications for communication and cultural transmission

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9cnp5hqtp](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9cnp5hqtp)

## Description of the data and file structure

The data were collected from camera traps placed at trees used for stone throwing. Empty cells represent values that were not determined.

### Files and variables

## File: data.txt

**Description:** 

##### Variables:

* Event.Observations.name: Individual ID code of the event
* Time.frame.total.before.druing.after.: Total time of the observation
* Observed.induvidual.main.surrounder.: Indicates if the individual on the vedo wa sthe one throwing the stone (=main) which was then used for the analysis.
* stone.drum.or.combi: Indicates the type of event as described in the manuscript
* Age: Age of the individual (here just adults)
* Date.and.time: Date and time of the event
* Location: Location of the event
* Induvidual.ID: ID (name) of the indivi...,