Name: BOX SET: 6 Minute English - 'Animals 3' English mega-class! 30 minutes of new vocab!
Uploaded: 2026-02-01T17:06:11.000Z
Duration: 30 min 26 s
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Six Minute English from BBC Learning English.

Now have you ever had a close encounter with a monkey or an ape?

No, Neil is referring to the fact that all humans are descended from apes and apes and monkeys belong to a group of animals called primates.

The difference is that monkeys have tails and and apes don't.

On a serious note, I had a close shave with some monkeys once in Bali.

A close shave is where you only just manage to avoid a dangerous situation.

I was walking up a mountain on my own and suddenly a bunch of monkeys jumped out of nowhere, blocking my path.

After standing there for ages while the monkeys screeched at me, I turned round and walked back the way I came.

Ok, if you screech at someone it means to make a la high and unpleasant sound.

And a face off by the way means an argument or fight.

Well, today's show is about gibbons and the different sounds they make.

Gibbons are small apes that live in Southeast Asia.

And while Neil's monkeys screech unpleasantly, gibbons sound like they're singing musical apes.

How far can a gibbons voice travel through the forest?

Well I have to guess and I'm going to say B1 kilometer.

Okay, well we'll find out later in the program whether you're right or wrong.

Now let's listen to what a gibbon really sounds like.

That's an absolutely wonderful evocative sound, isn't it?

So a male and a female, when they hold a territory together, will sing every morning what they call a duet.

And they'll all sing together at the same time and the whole forest will be alive with this cacophony of song.

If something is evocative it brings strong feelings or memories to mind.

And something that is evocative is usually pleasant, Rob.

And what's also interesting is that the apes are singing in pairs, one male and one female.

And so a duet is a song sung by two people or in this case sung by two gibbons.

And a lot of gibbons are singing duets at the same time, which Dr.

Cacophony means a mix of loud noises which often sound out of tune.

And that could easily describe us singing together.

But what's the reason for the gibbon duets, Neil?

Well the songs advertise the relationship between the male and the female.

And they also help to make clear which territory or bit of land belongs to a pair or group of gibbons.

Gibbons also use different sounds to alert or warn other gibbons about danger from predators.

These are animals that eat other animals.

The gibbons use a quiet hoo hoo call to communicate that a leopard is nearby and and an even quieter hoo hoo call for an eagle.

Now let's HEAR More from Dr. Clark about this.

Yes, so the idea is that if we find things like context specific calling in non human primates, it suggests that way back in time the ancestor that we shared with them also had context specific calling.

So basically it just gives us some clues to the evolutionary roots of complex communication like language.

Clark says that if we go far enough back in time, humans and other primates such as monkeys and apes have the same ancestor.

And ancestor means an animal or human from the past that a modern animal or human has descended from.

So if this common ancestor used context specific calls like modern gibbons, then it could have passed on this ability to humans and a long time ago context specific calling means different calls for different situations.

For example, one call for leopard and another for eagle.

And evolutionary means a gradual process of change or development.

Okay, well let's have the answer to the quiz question earlier.

I asked how far can a gibbons voice travel through the forest?

Is it a 500 meters, B1 kilometer or C5 kilometers and I said B1 kilometer and you were right.

Perhaps you do know a lot about gibbons, so well done.

Now can we hear today's words again maybe in a gibbons voice?

Well that's the end of today's 6 Minute English.

You can hear more 6 Minute English programmes on our website at BBCLearningEnglish.com Please join us again soon.

6 Minute English from BBC Learning English hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.