Vocal accommodation in bonobos

Nicolas Mathevon; Sumir Keenan; Jeroen M.G. Stevens; Klaus Zuberbühler; Florence Levréro

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.028

Vocal accommodation in bonobos

Nicolas Mathevon, Sumir Keenan, Jeroen M.G. Stevens, Klaus Zuberbühler, Florence Levréro^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Dialects and accents in human speech have a demonstrated social function as markers of group identity and often serve as psychological foundations of trust and cooperation. The extent to which this phenomenon is a feature of primate communication more generally is still debated. Here, we show that the vocal signatures of bonobos, Pan paniscus, belonging to three social groups show group-specific acoustic features independent of genetic relatedness. We compared the barks of 22 adults from the three groups and found that individuals currently living together had more similar barks than individuals that had never met or had lost touch with each other, regardless of their degree of genetic relatedness. We concluded that group-specific vocal accommodation is present in bonobos, suggesting an early evolutionary emergence of vocal plasticity in apes, which could be a means to signal social closeness between individuals.

Original language	English
Article number	123014
Journal	Animal Behaviour
Volume	219
Early online date	14 Dec 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.028
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2025

Keywords

acoustic communication
ape
bonobo
vocal accommodation
vocal learning

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10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.10.028Licence: CC BY

Mathevon_2024_AB_Vocal-accom-bonobos_CC
Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Final published version, 579 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Vocal accommodation in bonobos",

abstract = "Dialects and accents in human speech have a demonstrated social function as markers of group identity and often serve as psychological foundations of trust and cooperation. The extent to which this phenomenon is a feature of primate communication more generally is still debated. Here, we show that the vocal signatures of bonobos, Pan paniscus, belonging to three social groups show group-specific acoustic features independent of genetic relatedness. We compared the barks of 22 adults from the three groups and found that individuals currently living together had more similar barks than individuals that had never met or had lost touch with each other, regardless of their degree of genetic relatedness. We concluded that group-specific vocal accommodation is present in bonobos, suggesting an early evolutionary emergence of vocal plasticity in apes, which could be a means to signal social closeness between individuals.",

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author = "Nicolas Mathevon and Sumir Keenan and Stevens, {Jeroen M.G.} and Klaus Zuberb{\"u}hler and Florence Levr{\'e}ro",

note = "Funding: Funding was provided by the French Minist{\`e}re de l{\textquoteright}Enseignement Sup{\'e}rieur et de la Recherche (Ph.D. grant to S.K.), the university of Saint-Etienne (visiting professorship to K.Z. and research funding to F.L.), the European Research Council (K.Z. grant PRILANG 283871), the CNRS and the Institut Universitaire de France (F.L. & N.M.).",

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AU - Mathevon, Nicolas

AU - Keenan, Sumir

AU - Stevens, Jeroen M.G.

AU - Zuberbühler, Klaus

AU - Levréro, Florence

N1 - Funding: Funding was provided by the French Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche (Ph.D. grant to S.K.), the university of Saint-Etienne (visiting professorship to K.Z. and research funding to F.L.), the European Research Council (K.Z. grant PRILANG 283871), the CNRS and the Institut Universitaire de France (F.L. & N.M.).

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AB - Dialects and accents in human speech have a demonstrated social function as markers of group identity and often serve as psychological foundations of trust and cooperation. The extent to which this phenomenon is a feature of primate communication more generally is still debated. Here, we show that the vocal signatures of bonobos, Pan paniscus, belonging to three social groups show group-specific acoustic features independent of genetic relatedness. We compared the barks of 22 adults from the three groups and found that individuals currently living together had more similar barks than individuals that had never met or had lost touch with each other, regardless of their degree of genetic relatedness. We concluded that group-specific vocal accommodation is present in bonobos, suggesting an early evolutionary emergence of vocal plasticity in apes, which could be a means to signal social closeness between individuals.

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KW - vocal accommodation

KW - vocal learning

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SN - 0003-3472

VL - 219

JO - Animal Behaviour

JF - Animal Behaviour

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ER -

Vocal accommodation in bonobos

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Keywords

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