DOI: 10.5061/dryad.5tq80
title: Data from: Longitudinal recordings of the vocalizations of immature Gombe chimpanzees for developmental studies

description: Many researchers are interested in chimpanzee vocal communication, both as
 an important aspect of chimpanzee social behavior and as a source of
 insights into the evolution of human language. Nonetheless, very little is
 known about how chimpanzee vocal communication develops from infancy to
 adulthood. The largest dataset of audiorecordings from free-living
 immature chimpanzees was collected by the late Hetty van de Rijt-Plooij
 and Frans X. Plooij at Gombe National Park, Tanzania (1971–1973). These
 recordings have not yet been analysed. Therefore, the most extensive
 effort to study the development of chimpanzee vocalizations remains
 unfinished. The audiospecimens total over 10 h on 28 tapes, including 20
 tapes focusing on 17 specific immature individuals with a total of 1,136
 recordings. In order to make this dataset available to more researchers,
 the analogue sound recordings were digitized and stored in the Macaulay
 Library and the Dryad Repository. In addition, the original notes on the
 contexts of the calls were translated and transcribed from Dutch into
 English.
description: Gombe_biography-for_1971-3The Gombe_biography for the chimpanzee individuals present during the span of time that the recordings were made. The Gombe biography contains 13 columns, but the ones most useful for analyzing the vocalizations are the name of the individual (column B), the birth date (column C), the name of the mother (column H) and the sex of the individual (column I). The columns are explained in Strier et al. [1].1. Strier, K.B., et al., The Primate Life History Database: A unique shared ecological data resource. Methods Ecol Evol, 2010. 1(2): p. 199-211.List of names of infant vocalizationsA list of names of infant vocalizations as used in the Macaulay Library database notes and in the ‘All Infants’ spreadsheet.Dryad Readme fileDescribing the Gombe chimps data package including the unparsed digital copies of the chimp tapes and the metadata for the individual sound recordings.AtlasAll recordings of immature individual AtlasDemo TapeCollection of good recordings for demonstration purposesDemo Thesis 1Collection of good recordings for demonstration purposesDemo Thesis 2Collection of good recordings for demonstration purposesDemo Thesis 3Collection of good recordings for demonstration purposesFlint 1First recordings of immature individual FlintFlint 2Second recordings of immature individual FlintFreud 1First recordings of immature individual FreudFreud 2Second recordings of immature individual FreudGilkaAll recordings of immature individual GilkaGoblinAll recordings of immature individual GoblinGremlinAll recordings of immature individual GremlinKobiAll recordings of immature individual KobiLittle BeeAll recordings of immature individual Little BeeMoezaAll recordings of immature individual MoezaMustardAll recordings of immature individual MustardPlatoAll recordings of immature individual PlatoPomAll recordings of immature individual PomProfAll recordings of immature individual ProfSherryAll recordings of immature individual SherrySkoshaAll recordings of immature individual ShoshaSniffAll recordings of immature individual SniffWilkyAll recordings of immature individual WilkyAll Infants_3July2014final.xlsxThe first column of the spreadsheet contains the Macaulay catalog number and that is the link to the Macaulay database. The spreadsheet is basically the same as the Macaulay database except that the columns are organized in a slightly different way. From left to right the following columns can be found: ‘Macaulay catalog number’, ‘Recording Device’, ‘Focal individual’, ‘Focal Birthdate’, ‘Recordist record number’, the ‘Level of Recording’ as selected on the Nagra sound recorder, the ‘Quality outstanding’ column where an x indicates a recording that is outstanding for various reasons (such as a very clear, good-quality recording, a recording where the vocalization is without other, simultaneous vocalizations, a recording that is a good example of the development of infant vocalizations, a recording showing nice mother-infant interaction, a recording that illustrates how the infant ‘follows’ the vocalizations of the mother), the ‘Month’, ‘Day’ and ‘Year’ of the recording, the ‘Other individuals Vocalizing’ in the recording of the Focal Individual, the ‘Date’ of the recording, the ‘Focal age’ (the age in years of the focal individual at the date of recording), the ‘Individual(s) with sound/call type’, the ‘Observation of context’ and behaviors surrounding the vocalizations, the ‘Macaulay Library Public Notes’ field, the ‘Microphone’, the ‘Recorder’, and the ‘Tape Speed’. As is described in the Usage Notes section, the grammar of the column containing individual(s) with sound/call type is such that the sequence of vocalizing is preserved. This gives information on who initiated calling, if several individuals called. This is important because it shows that vocalizations of others often triggered infants to vocalize. In the column “Observation of the context and behaviors surrounding the vocalizations” the presence of nearby individuals was also noted, even if they did not vocalize. Please note that this is an updated version of "All Infants_3July2014final.xlsx", which is available in version 1 of this data package.All Infants_3July2014final_v2.xlsx