Researchers have discovered that female gibbons dance to attract attention

A trio of researchers, a zoologist, a primatologist and a professor of linguistics, respectively from the Jean Nicod Institute, Heinrich Heine University and the University of Oslo, have discovered that female gibbons engage in a strange form of robotic dance.

In their article published on the bioRxiv Preprint server, Camille Coye, Kai Caspar, and Pritty Patel-Grosz describe the dance they observed and theorize possible reasons for this behavior.

Many types of animals, from birds to spiders to insects, have been observed dancing. And most of them have in common that it’s the males who dance, usually to attract a mate. In this new study, the research team found that adult female gibbons sometimes dance for no reason other than to attract attention.

The team’s work began after talking to gibbon keepers who reported observing some of their charges dancing in ways they had never seen before. Intrigued, the researchers began studying videos of gibbons going about their usual activities, which the researchers said sometimes included females dancing.

They noted that only women danced and that they always did so with their backs turned to an observer. They described the dances as jerky and robotic, but generally rhythmic, with many of the key elements involved in human dance.

They also noted that these dances were performed for no obvious purpose, such as attracting a mate. Females danced for both male and female gibbon observers, and sometimes for other animals, including humans.

The researchers also noted that the dancers sometimes looked over their shoulders as they danced, toward the observer, to make sure he or she was still watching—and that they did so silently. The dance style was also consistent across individuals, though there were variations in duration and sometimes complexity. And the style was performed by females of four different gibbon species.

The trio of researchers could not pinpoint the reason for the dancing, but suggested it might have something to do with social interaction or the anticipation of an event, such as feeding.

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