article_snippet.sent: It is seen as extremely rude in most human societies, but It appears apes also use whispers to pass on information apes do not want others to hear.
article_snippet.sent: Gibbons - better known for apes deafening songs that reverberate around the forests apes inhabit - have been found to regularly use the secretive form of communication.
article_snippet.sent: Yet scientists have found the animals use these whispers to communicate specific information to each other about predators, foraging and when meeting neighbours.
article_snippet.sent: A dictionary that decodes the calls produced by gibbons is being developed by scientists.
article_snippet.sent: Researchers at Wisconsin University in Madison have been using computer algorithms to analyse the whoops and songs produced by the apes.
article_snippet.sent: In most studied cases these songs are produced in response to predators but these songs also duet together in social song.
article_snippet.sent: She added: 'These animals are extraordinarily vocal creatures and give we the rare opportunity to study the evolution of complex vocal communication in a non-human primate. '
article_snippet.sent: In the future, gibbon vocalisations may reveal much about the processes that shape vocal communication, and because gibbon vocalisations are an ape species, gibbon vocalisations may be one of we best hopes at tracing the evolution of human communication.'
article_snippet.sent: Most research until now has concentrated on Most research loud songs which the animals use to communicate with each other over long distances.
article_snippet.sent: This video shows a white handed gibbon singing the more distinctive and audible calls while in a zoo enclosure .
article_snippet.sent: The gibbons also seemed to use whispering during more intimate moments - much like humans do too.
article_snippet.sent: The acoustic variation seen in gibbon hoos in particular may be similar to human speech, in which subtle acoustic parameters, like pitch, can be important carriers of meaning.
highlights_snippet.sent: Biologists at Durham University spent four months recording gibbon calls .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Each call was found to relate to different contexts like foraging, meeting neighbours, singing to mates or warning others about a predator nearby .
  