Header

Adrian Soldati

Adrian Soldati, Dr.

Research description

My research focuses on understanding primate behaviour and cognition, with a particular emphasis on their communication. Using a comparative approach, I investigate the evolution of key human traits such as language by studying the communication systems of our closest living relatives. My work has mainly focused on wild chimpanzees and leverages field observations to uncover social drivers of communication as well as the ontogeny of vocal capacities. Currently, I am comparing the vocal communication of chimpanzees and bonobos, our closest living relatives, to better understand the evolutionary processes that may have led to the emergence of different communication systems, including human language.

Publication list

2025  Freymann E., Hobaiter C., Huffman M.A., Klein H., Muhumuza G., Reynolds V., Slania N.E., Soldati A., Yikii E.R., Zuberbühler K., Carvalho S.  Self-Directed and Prosocial Wound Care, Snare Removal, and Hygiene Behaviors Amongst the Budongo Chimpanzees. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

2025  Eleuteri  V., van der Werff J., Wilhelm W., Soldati A., Crockford C., Desai N., Fedurek P., Fitzgerald M., Graham K., Koops K., Pruetz J., Samuni L., Slocombe K., Stoeger A., Wilson M., Wittig R., Zuberbühler K., Camara H.D., Mamy G., Ravignani A.*, Hobaiter C.*  Chimpanzee drumming shows rhythmicity and subspecies variation. Current Biology

2025  Soldati A., Slocombe K., Call J., Zuberbühler K., Willems E., Fedurek P.  Do chimpanzees produce context-specific vocal structures in group-specific ways? Animal Behaviour

2025  Soldati A., Fedurek P., Dezecache G., Muhumuza G., Hobaiter C., Zuberbühler K*., Call J.*  Social and individual factors mediate chimpanzee vocal ontogeny. Scientific Reports

2024  Badihi G., Graham K., Safryghin A., Soldati A., Donnellan E., Grund C., Hashimoto C., Mine J., Piel A.K, Stewart F., Slocombe K.E., Wilke C., Townsend S.W., Zuberbühler K., Zulberti C., Hobaiter C.  Conversational homologues: Chimpanzee gestural exchanges share temporal structure with human language. Current Biology

2023  Badihi G., Graham K., Fallon B., Safryghin A., Soldati A., Zuberbühler K., Hobaiter C.  Dialects in leaf-clipping and other leaf-modifying gestures between neighbouring communities of East African chimpanzees. Scientific Reports

2023  Soldati A., Muhumuza G., Dezecache G., Fedurek P., Taylor D., Call J.*, Zuberbühler K*.  The ontogeny of vocal sequences: insights from a newborn wild chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii). International Journal of Primatology

2022  Soldati A. The ontogeny of pant hoot vocalisations and social awareness in wild chimpanzees. PhD Thesis, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, UK, and Biology faculty, University of Neuchâtel, CH (cotutelle). doi.org/10.17630/sta/307

2022  Péter H., Laporte M., Newton-Fisher N.E., Reynolds V., Samuni L., Soldati A., Vigilant L., Villioth J., Zuberbühler K., Hobaiter C.  Recognition of Visual Kinship Signals in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) by Humans (Homo sapiens). Journal of Comparative Psychology

2022  Eleuteri V., Henderson M., Soldati A., Badihi G., Zuberbühler K., & Hobaiter C.  The form and function of chimpanzee buttress-drumming. Animal Behaviour

2022  Soldati A.*, Barrault C.*, Hobaiter C., Mugisha S., De Moor D., Zuberbühler K.*, Dezecache G.*  Infrared thermal imaging as a window into primate social cognition: Insights from social feeding in wild chimpanzees. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

2022  Soldati A., Fedurek P., Crockford C., Adue S., Akankwasa J.W., Asiimwe C., Asua J., Atayo G., Chandia B., Freymann E., Fryns C., Muhumuza G., Taylor D., Zuberbühler K., Hobaiter C.  Dead infant carrying by chimpanzee mothers in the Budongo Forest. Primates

2022  Soldati A., Fedurek P., Dezecache G., Call J.*, Zuberbühler K.*  Audience sensitivity in chimpanzee display pant hoots. Animal Behaviour

2022  Wilke C.*, Lahiff N. J.*, Badihi G., Donnellan E., Hobaiter C., Machanda Z., Mundry R., Pika S., Soldati A., Wrangham R., Zuberbühler K., Slocombe K.E.  Referential gestures are not ubiquitous in wild chimpanzees: alternative functions for exaggerated loud scratch gestures. Animal Behaviour

2022  De Vevey M., Bouchard A., Soldati A., Zuberbühler K.  Thermal imaging reveals audience-dependent effects during cooperation and competition in wild chimpanzees. Scientific Reports

2019  Kersken V., Gómez J.C., Liszkowski U., Soldati A., & Hobaiter C.  A gestural repertoire of 1-to 2-year-old human children: in search of the ape gestures. Animal Cognition