It is a kind of cough that they only perform near their keepers in zoos
When Sukari, a 24-year-old gorilla from Zoo Atlanta, wants to get her keeper’s attention to get some delicious food, she does it in a special way. The gorilla then opens its mouth wide to make a somewhat unusual sound. What Sukari doesn’t know is that she, from having so much to do with her caregivers, has managed to develop a new way to communicate only with them in a sample of the mastery with which he uses a very rare skill in the animal world: vocalization
That sound that researchers have dubbed “snough” -for reminding you of a mix between a sneeze (sneezein English) and a cough (cough)- caught the attention of experts from the beginning. Some caretakers had made reference to this new sound but without giving it much importance.
However, the issue fascinated researchers Roberta SalmiI, Monica Szczupider of the University of Georgia, and Jodi Carrigan of Zoo Atlanta. Was it a display of his ability to vocalize or was it a random sound? In an effort to discover the secret behind this ‘snough’, the researchers began their study with Sukari and the rest of her family. The results have been published openly in the journal Pls One.
To find out whether the sound was the product of a complex vocalization technique or not, the researchers conducted a simple experiment. They observed how eight zoo gorillas behaved in different scenarios. In the first, a zookeeper stood near them, but without food. In the second, the researchers simply put food out without anyone present. In the last one, a zookeeper would approach them, but this time, with some food in hand.
Alone before the caretaker who brings food
The researchers found that the gorillas only made the sound when a human was present and holding food.. They suggest that its meaning is similar to the human “ahem”. The purpose is to draw attention to, hopefully, a food reward. Interestingly, only half of the individuals produced the new attention-getting sound, and all were adult female gorillas. Three of them had a close relationship: Sukari and Kudzoo are sisters, and Macy is Kudzoo’s first daughter.
Gorillas have previously shown that they are very good at recognizing and distinguishing between the voices of different humans, but With this discovery they have gone a step further. The gorillas add up with their ‘snough‘ to the select list of animals capable of vocalizing to communicate something they want to say to humans, and among which are also orangutans and chimpanzees.
These experiments were replicated in other zoos in the United States and Canada with similar results.. In both countries the gorillas made similar sounds and six of them showed that they knew how to make this special call for humans in different zoos.
These clues, in the opinion of the researchers, could show that the gorillas are learning that these sounds are effective in communicating with humans, and there is also the possibility that the primates have transmitted this knowledge.
Reference study: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0271871
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