

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