Orangutans can beatbox, say researchers

A team of scientists have spent almost 4,000 hours observing orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo in order to learn more about their vocal patterns. And they believe they’ve stumbled onto one of the most game-changing discoveries known to man – the orangutans can beatbox. More specifically, they can make consonant and vowel sounds at once, something impossible to most humans, except for a talented few pro beatboxers. The team believes that more importantly than the orangutans making bank on America’s Got Talent, this discovery will provide vital clues to the origins of our own vocal development. The fact that some humans can make dual sounds at all has led scientists to wonder if beatbox-like vocalizations were actually common in very early human speech, when we had more in common with our primate ancestors. In other words, we may have become far less rad as we’ve evolved.