Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- 1 The monkeys of the Taï forest: an introduction
- Part I Social behavior
- Part II Anti-predation strategies
- 5 Interaction between leopard and monkeys
- 6 Interactions between red colobus monkeys and chimpanzees
- 7 Interactions between African crowned eagles and their prey community
- 8 Monkey alarm calls
- Part III Habitat use
- Part IV Conservation
- Appendix
- Index
- Plate section
- References
8 - Monkey alarm calls
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- 1 The monkeys of the Taï forest: an introduction
- Part I Social behavior
- Part II Anti-predation strategies
- 5 Interaction between leopard and monkeys
- 6 Interactions between red colobus monkeys and chimpanzees
- 7 Interactions between African crowned eagles and their prey community
- 8 Monkey alarm calls
- Part III Habitat use
- Part IV Conservation
- Appendix
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
Introduction
Most primates vocalize when threatened by a predator. These signals, usually termed alarm calls (from old Italian “all arme” = “to arms” on the approach of an enemy), are interesting for a number of reasons. First, they are relatively uncomplicated to examine. Alarm calls are typically highly discrete signals, and it is thus often not difficult to study both causes and consequences of this behavior. Second, alarm calls are interesting because they pose a problem for evolutionary theory. Paradoxically, they are often amongst the most prominent and noticeable signals in a species' repertoire. But why should an individual behave conspicuously in the presence of a predator, hereby revealing its presence and location? Finally, alarm calls have obtained some significance for the empirical study of pre-linguistic abilities. Alarm calls are unique because they are well suited for experimental work and so provide a unique tool for empirically accessing the cognitive mechanisms underlying an individual's behavior.
The purpose of this chapter is to review some key findings in the study of primate alarm calling behavior. The first section is devoted to the problem of why primates produce seemingly maladaptive behavior in the presence of a predator. Which evolutionary processes could have provided a selective advantage for individuals to behave in this counter-intuitive way? A second section is concerned with the cognitive processes that underlie call production and perception.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Monkeys of the Taï ForestAn African Primate Community, pp. 194 - 220Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
References
and (2006a). The alarm calling system of putty- nosed monkeys, Cercopithecus nictitans martini. Animal Behaviour, 72, 643–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2006b). Language evolution: semantic combinations in primate calls. Nature, 441, 303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2001). Alarm calls as costly signals of antipredators vigilance: the watchful babbler game. Animal Behaviour, 61, 535–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (1997). Alarm calling in yellow-bellied marmots: 2. The importance of direct fitness. Animal Behaviour, 53, 173–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1989). Hunting behavior of wild chimpanzees in the Taï National Park. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 78, 547–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, and (1990). Spider monkey alarm calls: honest advertisement of warning kin. Animal Behaviour, 39, 197–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1975). Evolution of alarm calls: altruism or manipulation? American Naturalist, 109, 107–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1985). Vervet monkey alarm calls: manipulation through shared information?Behaviour, 94, 739–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1988). Assessment of meaning and the detection of unreliable signals by vervet monkeys. Animal Behaviour, 36, 477–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1990). Attending to behaviour versus attending to knowledge: examining monkeys' attribution of mental states. Animal Behaviour, 40, 742–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1979). The roaring of red deer and the evolution of honest advertisement. Behaviour, 69, 145–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2004). Cooperation and competition in two forest monkeys. Behavioral Ecology, 15, 400–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gautier, J.-P. and Gautier, A. (1977). Communication in Old World monkeys. In How Animals Communicate, ed. . Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, pp. 890–964.Google Scholar
(1984). Inheritance of song parameters in the gibbon song, analysed in 2 hybrid gibbons (Hylobates pileatus x H. lar). Folia Primatologica, 24, 216–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1999). The neuroethology of primate vocal communication: substrates for the evolution of speech. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 377–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(1986). The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behaviour. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
and (1989). Design features and developmental modification of pigtail macaque, Macaca nemestrina, agonistic screams. Animal Behaviour, 32, 182–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, S. (1975). Variation of vocal pattern with social situation in the Japanese monkey (Macaca fuscata): a field study. In Primate Behavior Developments in Field and Laboratory Research, ed. . New York: Academic Press, pp. 1–102.Google Scholar
, and (1987). Semantics of an avian alarm call system: the male domestic fowl, G. domesticus. Behaviour, 102, 15–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1987). Combinatorial animal communication with computable syntax: chick-a-dee calling qualifies as “language” by structural linguistics. Animal Behaviour, 34, 1899–901.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (2001). Vocal development in squirrel monkeys. Behaviour, 138, 1179–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (1993). The role of articulation in the production of rhesus monkey, Macaca mulatta, vocalizations. Animal Behaviour, 45, 423–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1994). The role of lip configuration in monkey vocalizations – experiments using Xylocaine as a nerve block. Brain and Language, 46, 232–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henton, C. and Bladon, A. (1988). Creak as a sociophonetic marker. In Language, Speech, and Mind: Studies in Honour of Victoria A. Fromkin, ed. and . London: Routledge, pp. 3–29.Google Scholar
, and (2001). Territory characteristics among three neighbouring chimpanzee communities in the Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire. International Journal of Primatology, 22, 143–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (1994). Signature whistle variations in a bottlenosed dolphin, Tursiops truncatus. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 35, 243–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (1980). Single note vocalizations of California ground squirrels: graded signals and situation – specificity of predator and socially evoked calls. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 52, 227–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2004). Patterns of vocal sharing and social dynamics in a captive group of Campbell's monkeys (Cercopithecus campbelli campbelli). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 118, 347–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (2005). Socially meaningful vocal plasticity in adult Campbell's monkeys (Cercopithecus campbelli). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 112, 220–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (2004). A new methodological approach to context analysis of call production. Bioacoustics – the International Journal of Animal Sound and Its Recording, 14, 111–25.Google Scholar
, and (1999). Does learning affect the structure of vocalizations in chimpanzees?Animal Behaviour, 58, 825–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (1980). Chatter vocalizations of California ground squirrels: predator- and social-role specificity. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 54, 163–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1978). Alarm calls of California ground squirrels (Spermophilus beecheyi). Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 46, 58–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1990a). Acoustic classification of alarm calls by vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) and humans (Homo sapiens). 1. Natural calls. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 104, 20–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1990b). Acoustic classification of alarm calls by vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) and humans (Homo sapiens). 2. Synthetic calls. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 104, 29–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owren, M. J. and Bernacki, R. H. (1998). Applying Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) to frequency-spectrum analysis of animal acoustic signals. In Animals Acoustic Communication, ed. , and . Berlin: Springer, pp. 129–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (1993). Vocalizations of rhesus (Macaca mulatta) and Japanese (M. fuscata) macaques cross-fostered between species show evidence of only limited modification. Developmental Psychobiology, 26, 389–406.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, and (1998). The role of vocal tract filtering in identity cueing in rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) vocalizations. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 103, 602–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , and (2005). The production mechanisms of Diana monkey alarm calls: morphological data and a model. Journal of Human Evolution, 48, 85–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , and (2006). Multiple discontinuities in nonhuman vocal tracts – A response to Lieberman (2006). Journal of Human Evolution, 50, 222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2003a). Pulse register phonation in Diana monkey alarm calls. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 113, 2919–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2003b). The relationship between acoustic structure and semantic information in Diana monkey alarm calls. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 114, 1132–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1989). Variability in contact calls between troops of Japanese macaques: a possible case of neutral evolution of animal culture. Animal Behaviour, 38, 900–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2001). Associations of crested guinea fowl Guttera pucherani and monkeys in Kibale national park, Uganda. Ibis, 143, 310–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1980). The ontogeny of vervet monkey alarm calling behavior: a preliminary report. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 54, 37–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1997). Behavioral mechanisms underlying vocal communication in nonhuman primates. Animal Learning and Behavior, 25, 249–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (1980). Monkey responses to three different alarm calls: evidence of predator classification and semantic communication. Science, 210, 801–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (2005a). Functionally referential communication in a chimpanzee. Current Biology, 15, 1779–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2005b). Agonistic screams in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) vary as a function of social role. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 119, 67–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1999). Pygmy marmosets modify call structure when paired. Ethology, 105, 893–908.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1967). Auditory communication among vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops). In Social Communication Among Primates, ed. . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 281–324.Google Scholar
and (1977). Evolution of long-distance alarm calls in Kloss's gibbon. Nature, 268, 233–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M. and Zuberbühler, K. (2002). Primate vocal and gestural communication. In The Cognitive Animal, ed. , and . Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, pp. 293–9.Google Scholar
and (2001). The functional significance of Diana monkey “clear” calls. Behaviour, 138, 741–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (1997). Diet overlap and polyspecific associations of red colobus and Diana monkeys in the Taï National Park, Ivory Coast. Ethology, 103, 514–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2003). Mixed-species associations of Diana and Campbell's monkeys: the costs and benefits of a forest phenomenon. Behaviour, 140, 371–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1979). Perceiving surprising words in an unattended auditory channel. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 31, 281–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2000a). Causal cognition in a non-human primate: field playback experiments with Diana monkeys. Cognition, 76, 195–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2000b). Causal knowledge of predators' behaviour in wild Diana monkeys. Animal Behaviour, 59, 209–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2000c). Interspecific semantic communication in two forest monkeys. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B, 267, 713–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2000d). Referential labelling in Diana monkeys. Animal Behaviour, 59, 917–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2001). Predator-specific alarm calls in Campbell's guenons. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 50, 414–22.Google Scholar
Zuberbühler, K. (2002a). Effects of natural and sexual selection on the evolution of guenon loud calls. In The Guenons: Diversity and Adaptation in African Monkeys, ed. and . New York: Plenum, pp. 289–306.Google Scholar
(2002b). A syntactic rule in forest monkey communication. Animal Behaviour, 63, 293–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (1999). Conceptual semantics in a nonhuman primate. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 113, 33–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2002). Leopard predation and primate evolution. Journal of Human Evolution, 43, 873–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, and (1999). The predator deterrence function of primate alarm calls. Ethology, 105, 477–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar