Abstract
Screams are acoustically distinct, high-pitched and high-amplitude
calls, produced by many social species. Despite a wide range of
production contexts, screams are characterised by an acoustic structure
that appears to serve in altering the behaviour of targeted receivers
during agonistic encounters. In chimpanzees, this can be achieved by
callers producing acoustic variants that correlate with their identity,
social role, relationship with the targeted recipient, the composition
of the audience and the nature of the event. Although vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus)
have been studied for decades, not much is known about their agonistic
screams. Here, we examined agonistic screams produced by wild vervet
monkeys to investigate the degree to which caller identity, social role
and conflict severity affected call structure. We found that screams
were both individually distinctive and dependent of the agonistic
events. In particular, victim screams were longer and higher-pitched
than aggressor screams, while screams produced in severe conflicts
(chases, physical contact) had higher entropy than those in mild
conflicts. We discuss these findings in terms of their evolutionary
significance and suggest that acoustic variation might serve to reduce
the aggression level of opponents, while simultaneously attracting
potential helpers.
Original language | English |
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Article number | e0214640 |
Number of pages | 20 |
Journal | PLoS One |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 May 2019 |
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Correlates of social role and conflict severity in wild vervet monkey agonistic screams (dataset)
Mercier, S. (Creator), Déaux, E. C. (Creator), van de Waal, E. (Creator), Bono, A. E. J. (Creator) & Zuberbuhler, K. (Creator), Figshare, 25 Mar 2019
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5413975.v1
Dataset