Researchers from the University of Birmingham, UK, and the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland, have found that no humans can communicate with adults through different pitched sounds, but even wild Bonobos can also do the same thing.

Study researchers affirmed that Bonobos ‘peep’ to communicate and they use the same in a wider variety of situations. In comparison to a piercing shriek, the peeps are high-pitched, subtle and produced with closed lips.

“Our data suggest that the capacity for functional flexibility has evolutionary roots that predate the evolution of human speech. We interpret this evidence as an example of an evolutionary early transition away from fixed vocal signalling towards functional flexibility”, stated the study researchers.

There are chances that emotion-based communicated may have originated in the common ancestor that linked bonobos and humans. The researchers affirmed that wild Bonobos use a high-pitched call in different contexts, a flexibility in communication, which was considered to be unique to humans.

Researchers said Bonobos are closely related to humans as chimpanzees. But their communication is less studied in comparison to wild chimpanzees. Dr Zanna Clay from the University of Birmingham said functional flexibility considered to be only found in humans was noticed among the bonobos when she was studying in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

She collected the recordings of peeps and were later assessed from which it was found that peeps have been used in different situations and were acoustically identical.