Data from: An archive of longitudinal recordings of the vocalizations of adult Gombe chimpanzees

Studies of chimpanzee vocal communication provide valuable insights into
the evolution of communication in complex societies, and also comparative
data for understanding the evolution of human language. One particularly
valuable dataset of recordings from free-living chimpanzees was collected
by Frans X. Plooij and the late Hetty van de Rijt-Plooij at Gombe National
Park, Tanzania (1971–73). These audio specimens, which have not yet been
analysed, total over 10 h on 28 tapes, including 7 tapes focusing on adult
individuals with a total of 605 recordings. In 2014 the first part of that
collection of audio specimens covering the vocalizations of the immature
Gombe chimpanzees was made available. The data package described here
covers the vocalizations of the adult chimpanzees. We expect these
recordings will prove useful for studies on topics including referential
signalling and the emergence of dialects. The digitized sound recordings
were stored in the Macaulay Library and the Dryad Repository. In addition,
the original notes on the contexts of the calls were translated and
transcribed from Dutch into English.