• Question: Do you think baboons would be able to communicate with humans?

    Asked by Amy to Suzanne on 2 Feb 2018.
    • Photo: Suzanne Harvey

      Suzanne Harvey answered on 2 Feb 2018:

      In very simple terms this is possible, for example a field assistant where I work is able to mimic a baboon contact call accurately enough that they answer. A lot of researchers have worked on ‘translating’ different sounds and we now know quite a lot about the things baboons are communicating, but we would never be able to have a full conversation like a human language.

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