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The vocal behaviour of Diana monkeys (Cercopithecus diana diana): flexibility and sex differences| old_uid | 12115 |
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| title | The vocal behaviour of Diana monkeys (Cercopithecus diana diana): flexibility and sex differences |
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| start_date | 2013/02/19 |
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| schedule | 16h |
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| online | no |
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| summary | It has long been thought that non-human primates possess little if no control over the acoustic structure of their vocal signals. This explains restricted call repertoires in many species but it does not explain how these monkeys respond to short-term changes in the environment. In particular, vocal flexibility is supposed to be especially important during predatory events, in which the reduction of uncertainty about the eliciting event is crucial in terms of fitness consequences. In many non-human primate species, males and females vocalize together during threatening events but whether females’ and males’ vocalizations are coordinated remains unknown.
Among forest guenons, Diana monkeys (Cercopithecus diana diana) possess a remarkable sexual dimorphism in their call repertoire and call usage, which is also reflected in their social organisation. The typical group structure is one reproducing male, who utters few different low-pitched, long-distance calls only to threatening events and typically 5-11 reproductive females who vocalize in much broader contexts, namely social interaction but also to threats, e.g. predators. Both sexes utter highly context-specific alarm calls, also “functionally referential signals”, to leopards (Panthera pardus) and eagles (Stephanoaetus coronatus), as well as general alert calls.
In this talk, I will summarize playback experiments in two habitats in West Africa, Taï National Park (Ivory Coast) and Tiwai Island (Sierra Leone). I will present empirical evidence that females’ and males’ vocal systems develop more flexibly than expected, mainly as a function of ontogenetic experiences with predators- although the impact of pre-experience on both vocal systems is considerably different. During predatory events, females and males indeed coordinate their alarm-calling behaviour, showing highly complex audience effects that may hint to a sex-specific cognitive disparity. |
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| responsibles | Chemla, Schlenker |
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