A non-human primate combinatorial system for long-distance communication.

ABSTRACT: Complex vocal systems are thought to evolve if individuals are regularly challenged by complex social decision-making, the social complexity hypothesis. We tested this idea on a West African forest non-human primate, the Olive colobus monkey, a highly cryptic species with very little social behavior and very small group sizes, factors unlikely to favor the evolution of complex communication. The species also has an unusual fission-fusion social system, with group members regularly spending considerable amounts of time with neighboring groups. As predicted by the social complexity hypothesis, we only found a very basic repertoire of two call types in this species, produced by both males and females. However, the calls were astonishingly loud, never uttered alone but in syntactically structu

SUBMITTER: Gallot Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11570502 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature