Javan Gibbon (Hylobates moloch) Non-Vocal Social Communication and Gesture Use With Conspecifics

I explored gestures used by captive Javan gibbons (<em>Hylobates moloch</em>) at the Gibbon Conservation Center (Santa Clarita, CA). I hypothesized that a sender gibbon’s gesture modality would vary with the recipient gibbon’s attentional state and the sender would be equally likely to use all modalities (tactile, visual, actions, and facial expressions) when the recipient was attending (facing the sender), but would use more tactile gestures and actions when the recipient was non-attending (oriented away from the sender). I collected data from 10 individuals using all-occurrences sampling and an ethogram to score behaviors from video recordings. In 1,143 interactions, gibbons used visual gestures and facial expressions significantly more when the recipient was attending and tactile gestures significantly more when the recipient was non-attending. There was no significant difference in actions. These data show that juvenile Javan gibbons used gestures appropriate to recipient’s attentional state in three out of the four modalities.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Primate Behavior

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Bell, Melanie

Contributors dc:contributor

• Lori K. Sheeran
• Ralf Greenwald
• Jessica A. Mayhew

• Silver gibbon; Hylobatid; Cognition; Gesture; Communication; Attentional state
• Animal Sciences
• Animal Studies
• Biological and Physical Anthropology
• Cognition and Perception
• Other Communication
• Social Psychology

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/59

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.cwu.edu:etd-1064