Tolerant and intolerant macaques show different levels of structural complexity in their vocal communication.

ABSTRACT: We tested the social complexity hypothesis which posits that animals living in complex social environments should use complex communication systems. We focused on two components of vocal complexity: diversity (number of categories of calls) and flexibility (degree of gradation between categories of calls). We compared the acoustic structure of vocal signals in groups of macaques belonging to four species with varying levels of uncertainty (i.e. complexity) in social tolerance (the higher the degree of tolerance, the higher the degree of uncertainty): two intolerant species, Japanese and rhesus macaques, and two tolerant species, Tonkean and crested macaques. We recorded the vocalizations emitted by adult females in affiliative, agonistic and neutral contexts. We analysed several acoustic v

SUBMITTER: Rebout N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7341924 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature