Semantic combinations in primate calls

Primate copulation calls and postcopulatory female choice

Females in some species of Old World monkeys and apes vocalize after copulation, but the function of these vocalizations is not clear. In this article, we examine the hypothesis that copulation calls are a form of postcopulatory female choice. According to this hypothesis, copulation calls are honest signals of fertility (i.e., ovulation) that are used by females to encourage mate guarding by t...

Hornbills can distinguish between primate alarm calls.

Some mammals distinguish between and respond appropriately to the alarm calls of other mammal and bird species. However, the ability of birds to distinguish between mammal alarm calls has not been investigated. Diana monkeys (Cercopithecus diana) produce different alarm calls to two predators: crowned eagles (Stephanoaetus coronatus) and leopards (Panthera pardus). Yellow-casqued hornbills (Cer...

Predation increases acoustic complexity in primate alarm calls.

According to most accounts, alarm calling in non-human primates is a biologically hardwired behaviour with signallers having little control over the acoustic structure of their calls. In this study, we compared the alarm calling behaviour of two adjacent populations of Diana monkeys at Taï forest (Ivory Coast) and Tiwai Island (Sierra Leone), which differ significantly in predation pressure. At...

Meaningful call combinations in a non-human primate

We conducted a series of playback experiments with free-ranging putty-nosed monkeys at Gashaka Gumti National Park, Nigeria. In a first experiment, we observed the behavior of the females of a habituated group in response to playbacks of natural call series of their own male. A female could serve as focal subject if she was located at the periphery of the group while the male was at the opposit...

Evidence for semantic communication in titi monkey alarm calls