Because of this, and the relatively small number of intended meanings they achieve, ape gestures are redundant, with extensive overlaps in meaning. Compared to the signalling of most other animals, great ape gestural repertoires are large.
As with human words, ape gestures often have several distinct meanings, which are effectively disambiguated by behavioural context.
Intended meanings of ape gestures are relatively few and simple. These facts make the study of ape gesture directly relevant to understanding the evolutionary precursors of human language here we present an assessment of ape gesture from that perspective, focusing on the work of the “St Andrews Group” of researchers. Great apes give gestures deliberately and voluntarily, in order to influence particular target audiences, whose direction of attention they take into account when choosing which type of gesture to use.
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