Elgin Center

The Elgin Center is a non-profit conservation and animal behavioral research center at Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee, Florida in the United States.

The primary focus of the center has been research on the behavior of the center's 26 chimpanzees.

Group-specific vocalizations and vocal evolution in chimpanzees
One of the first findings at the center concerned chimpanzee vocalizations. Chimpanzees have been found to have group-specific vocalizations (the structure of chimpanzee calls vary from group to group). This gives evidence that chimpanzee calls are learned rather than genetically inherrited. At Lion Country Safari, the largest chimpanzee group was separated in 2004, with seven of the group going to the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. Two years later, the vocalizations were analyzed and it was determined that the way they were vocalizing was slightly different from their original group - giving evidence that chimpanzee vocalization evolve in much the same way human dialects do. This provides a direct link between chimpanzee vocal communication and human language.

External link
Elgin Center - official website