border control
by Mike Fainzilber
the beat
of different drummers
Rhythmic drumming is thought to be one of the earliest forms of musical expression in humans. Wild chimpanzees are also known to drum on trees, and recent research has shown that this drumming behavior has rhythm.
Strikingly, a recent study shows that different chimpanzee groups drum with different beats (1). East African chimpanzees from savannas and dry woodlands have distinct beat patterns from those of West African rainforest populations, setting an acoustic basis for subspecies and population recognition and communication (1). The findings further suggest that a sense of rhythm arose before diversification of the primate evolutionary tree (2).
Further reading:
(1) ‘Chimpanzee drumming shows rhythmicity and subspecies variation’, 2025, Eleuteri, V., et al., Current Biology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.019
(2) ‘Chimpanzee drumming may give clues to the roots of rhythm’, 2025, Ortega, R.P., Science News, available: https://www.science.org/content/article/chimpanzee-drumming-may-give-clues-roots-rhythm
Author bio:
Mike Fainzilber’s day job is a biologist. He began writing haiku and senryu during the pandemic, and this side effect of COVID-19 has not worn off yet. Editors in his two spheres of activity have been known to suggest that he should best restrict his efforts to the other sphere. Find out more about Mike’s research via his lab’s website and connect with him on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/mfainzilber.bsky.social .