Titi monkeys combine alarm calls to create probabilistic meaning

Previous work suggested that titi monkeys Callicebus nigrifrons combine two alarm calls, the A- and B-calls, to communicate about predator type and location. To explore how listeners process these sequences, we recorded alarm call sequences of six free-ranging groups exposed to terrestrial and aerial predator models, placed on the ground or in the canopy, and used multimodel inference to assess the information encoded in the sequences. We then carried out playback experiments to identify the features used by listeners to react to the available information. Results indicated that information about predator type and location were encoded by the proportion of B-call pairs relative to all call pairs of the sequence (i.e., proportion of BB-grams). The results suggest that the meaning of the sequence is not conveyed in a categorical but probabilistic manner. We discuss the implications of these findings for current theories of animal communication and language evolution.

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Heterospecific alarm-call recognition in two warbler hosts of common cuckoos

Animal Cognition ◽

10.1007/s10071-019-01307-9 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 22 (6) ◽

pp. 1149-1157 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Jiangping Yu ◽

Hailin Lu ◽

Wei Sun ◽

Wei Liang ◽

Haitao Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alarm Call ◽

Alarm Calls ◽

Reed Warbler ◽

Cuculus Canorus ◽

Common Cuckoo ◽

Playback Experiments ◽

Call Recognition ◽

Accipiter Nisus ◽

Main Host ◽

The Common

Abstract Species facing similar selection pressures should recognize heterospecific alarm signals. However, no study has so far examined heterospecific alarm-call recognition in response to parasitism by cuckoos. In this study, we tested whether two sympatric host species of the common cuckoo Cuculus canorus, Oriental reed warbler Acrocephalus orientalis (ORW, main host), and black-browed reed warbler Acrocephalus bistrigiceps (BRW, rare host), could recognize each other’s alarm calls in response to cuckoos. Dummies of common cuckoo (parasite) and Eurasian sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus (predator) were used to induce and record alarm calls of the two warbler species, respectively. In the conspecific alarm-call playback experiments, ORW responded more strongly to cuckoo alarm calls than to sparrowhawk alarm calls, while BRW responded less strongly to cuckoo alarm calls than to sparrowhawk alarm calls. In the heterospecific alarm-call playback experiments, both ORW and BRW responded less strongly to cuckoo alarm calls than sparrowhawk alarm calls. BRW seemed to learn the association between parasite-related alarm calls of the ORW and the cuckoo by observing the process of ORW attacking cuckoos. In contrast, alarm calls of BRW to cuckoos were rarely recorded in most cases. BRW with low parasite pressure still developed recognition of heterospecific parasite-related alarm call. Unintended receivers in the same community should recognize heterospecific alarm calls precisely to extract valuable information.

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Male blue monkeys alarm call in response to danger experienced by others

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2008.0299 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 4 (5) ◽

pp. 472-475 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

Sarah Papworth ◽

Anne-Sophie Böse ◽

Jessica Barker ◽

Anne Marijke Schel ◽

Klaus Zuberbühler

Keyword(s):

Alarm Call ◽

Alarm Calls ◽

Panthera Pardus ◽

Playback Experiments ◽

Cercopithecus Mitis ◽

Group Members ◽

Blue Monkeys ◽

Budongo Forest

Male blue monkeys ( Cercopithecus mitis stuhlmanni ) of Budongo Forest, Uganda, produce two acoustically distinct alarm calls: hacks to crowned eagles ( Stephanoaetus coronatus ) and pyows to leopards ( Panthera pardus ) and a range of other disturbances. In playback experiments, males responded to leopard growls exclusively with a series of pyows and to eagle shrieks predominantly with hacks. Responses to playbacks of these alarm call series matched the responses to the corresponding predators, suggesting that the calls conveyed something about the nature of the threat. When responding to a series of hacks, indicating an eagle, males responded predominately with hacks, but produced significantly more calls if their group members were close to the playback stimulus than far away, regardless of their own position. When responding to a series of pyows, indicating a range of disturbances, males responded with pyows, but call rates were independent of the distance of other group members. The results suggest that males took into account the degree of danger experienced by other group members.

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Construction grammar for monkeys?

Evolutionary Linguistic Theory ◽

10.1075/elt.00021.ple ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Michael Pleyer ◽

Stefan Hartmann

Keyword(s):

Communication Systems ◽

Animal Communication ◽

Language Evolution ◽

Construction Grammar ◽

Alarm Calls ◽

Human Language ◽

Communication Research ◽

Evolution Of Language ◽

Linguistic Communication ◽

Key Issues

Abstract In recent years, multiple researchers working on the evolution of language have put forward the idea that the theoretical framework of usage-based approaches and Construction Grammar is highly suitable for modelling the emergence of human language from pre-linguistic or proto-linguistic communication systems. This also raises the question of whether usage-based and constructionist approaches can be integrated with the analysis of animal communication systems. In this paper, we review possible avenues where usage-based, constructionist approaches can make contact with animal communication research, which in turn also has implications for theories of language evolution. To this end, we first give an overview of key assumptions of usage-based and constructionist approaches before reviewing some key issues in animal communication research through the lens of usage-based, constructionist approaches. Specifically, we will discuss how research on alarm calls, gestural communication and symbol-trained animals can be brought into contact with usage-based, constructionist theorizing. We argue that a constructionist view of animal communication can yield new perspectives on its relation to human language, which in turn has important implications regarding the evolution of language. Importantly, this theoretical approach also generates hypotheses that have the potential of complementing and extending results from the more formalist approaches that often underlie current animal communication research.

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The cessation of contact calls does not provoke or modulate alarm behaviour in a social passerine

Behaviour ◽

10.1163/1568539x-bja10117 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-20

Author(s):

Estelle Meaux ◽

Chao He ◽

Luying Qin ◽

Eben Goodale

Keyword(s):

Social Factors ◽

Group Living ◽

Alarm Call ◽

Alarm Calls ◽

Playback Experiments ◽

Contact Call ◽

Alarm Calling ◽

Alarm Behaviour ◽

Contact Calls ◽

Crucial Information

Abstract Vocalizations that signal predation risk such as alarm calls provide crucial information for the survival of group-living individuals. However, alarm calling may attract the predator’s attention and, to avoid this cost, animals can opt for alternative strategies to indicate danger, such as ‘adaptive silence’, which is the cessation of vocalizations. We investigate here whether abrupt contact call cessation would provoke alarm responses, or would reinforce the signal given by an alarm call. In an aviary setting, we conducted playback experiments with a group-living passerine, the Swinhoe’s white-eye, Zosterops simplex. We found that birds did not respond to a sudden call cessation, nor did they have a stronger response to alarm calls followed by silence than to alarm calls followed by contact calls. Confirming previous work investigating contact call rate, it appears that in this species contact calls encode information about social factors but not environmental conditions.

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ALARM CALLING IN THREE SPECIES OF MARMOTS

Behaviour ◽

10.1163/156853999501540 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 136 (6) ◽

pp. 731-757 ◽

Cited By ~ 57

Author(s):

Daniel Blumstein

Keyword(s):

Alarm Call ◽

Vancouver Island ◽

Alarm Calls ◽

Playback Experiments ◽

Micro Structure ◽

Stimulus Class ◽

Call Structure ◽

Alarm Calling ◽

Degree Of Risk ◽

Lines Of Evidence

AbstractMany species produce alarm calls that vary according to situation. Theoretically, alarm call structure could covary with predator type and could communicate potentially ''referential information, or calls could covary with the degree of risk a caller experienced when it emitted a call. Using similar methods, I studied the ways in which Olympic (Marmota olympus), hoary (M. caligata), and Vancouver Island marmots (M. vancouverensis) communicated situational variation. I observed both natural alarm calling, and I artificially elicited alarm calls with simulated terrestrial and aerial predators. I used playback experiments to study marmots' responses to different alarm call variants. All three species produced four roughly similar but distinctive loud alarm vocalizations that could be categorized by their relative shape, duration, and whether calls were quickly repeated to create multi-note vocalizations. In addition, the Vancouver Island marmot produced a fifth loud alarm call-the kee-aw. Call micro-structure varied as a function of the distance the caller was from an alarming stimulus and the type of alarming stimulus. Two lines of evidence suggest that all three species had alarm calls associated with the caller's risk (i.e. they were not referential). First, marmots often changed call types within a calling bout: there were no unique stimulus-class specific vocalizations. Second, marmot responses to alarm calls were graded: marmots did not have unique responses to different call types. These three close taxonomic relatives with superficially similar calls, communicated risk differently.

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Construction Grammar for Monkeys? Animal communication and its implications for language evolution in the light of usage-based linguistic theory

10.31234/osf.io/65ved ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Michael Pleyer ◽

Stefan Hartmann

Keyword(s):

Communication Systems ◽

Animal Communication ◽

Language Evolution ◽

Construction Grammar ◽

Alarm Calls ◽

Human Language ◽

Communication Research ◽

Evolution Of Language ◽

Linguistic Communication ◽

Key Issues

In recent years, multiple researchers working on the evolution of language have put forward the idea that the theoretical framework of usage-based approaches and Construction Grammar is highly suitable for modelling the emergence of human language from pre-linguistic or proto-linguistic communication systems. This also raises the question of whether usage-based and constructionist approaches can be integrated with the analysis of animal communication systems. In this paper, we review possible avenues where usage-based, constructionist approaches can make contact with animal communication research, which in turn also has implications for theories of language evolution. To this end, we first give an overview of key assumptions of usage-based and constructionist approaches before reviewing some key issues in animal communication research through the lens of usage-based, constructionist approaches. Specifically, we will discuss how research on alarm calls, gestural communication and symbol-trained animals can be brought into contact with usage-based, constructionist theorizing. We argue that a constructionist view of animal communication can yield new perspectives on its relation to human language, which in turn has important implications regarding the evolution of language. Importantly, this theoretical approach also generates hypotheses that have the potential of complementing and extending results from the more formalist approaches that often underlie current animal communication research.

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The alarm call system of wild black-fronted titi monkeys, Callicebus nigrifrons

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology ◽

10.1007/s00265-011-1313-0 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 66 (5) ◽

pp. 653-667 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

Cristiane Cäsar ◽

Richard Byrne ◽

Robert J. Young ◽

Klaus Zuberbühler

Keyword(s):

Alarm Call ◽

Call System ◽

Titi Monkeys ◽

Callicebus Nigrifrons

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Titi monkey call sequences vary with predator location and type

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2013.0535 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. 20130535 ◽

Cited By ~ 50

Author(s):

Cristiane Cäsar ◽

Klaus Zuberbühler ◽

Robert J. Young ◽

Richard W. Byrne

Keyword(s):

New World ◽

Alarm Call ◽

Alarm Calls ◽

Category Size ◽

World Primate ◽

Titi Monkey ◽

Threat Level ◽

Call System ◽

Callicebus Nigrifrons ◽

Different Parts

Animal alarm calls can encode information about a predator's category, size, distance or threat level. In non-human primates, alarm calls typically refer to broad classes of disturbances, in some instances to specific predators. Here, we present the results of a field experiment with a New World primate, the black-fronted titi monkey ( Callicebus nigrifrons ), designed to explore the information conveyed by their alarm call system. Adults produced sequences consisting of two main alarm call types that conveyed, in different parts of the utterance, information about a predator's type and location. In particular, sequence compositions differed depending on whether the predator was a mammalian carnivore or a raptor, and whether it was detected in a tree or on the ground. This is the first demonstration of a sequence-based alarm call system in a non-human animal that has the capacity to encode both location and type of predatory threat.

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When the birds go unheard: highway noise disrupts information transfer between bird species

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2016.0113 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 20160113 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Aaron M. Grade ◽

Kathryn E. Sieving

Keyword(s):

Information Transfer ◽

Animal Communication ◽

Bird Species ◽

Alarm Call ◽

Alarm Calls ◽

Noise Masking ◽

Vehicle Noise ◽

Highway Infrastructure ◽

Highway Noise ◽

Tufted Titmouse

Highway infrastructure and accompanying vehicle noise is associated with decreased wildlife populations in adjacent habitats. Noise masking of animal communication is an oft-cited potential mechanism underlying species loss in sound-polluted habitats. This study documents the disruption of between-species information transfer by anthropogenic noise. Titmice and chickadees broadcast specific calls to alert kin of predator threats, and sympatric vertebrates eavesdrop on these alarm calls to avoid predators. We tested if tufted titmouse alarm call eavesdropping by northern cardinals is disrupted by road noise. We broadcast recorded alarm calls to cardinals in natural areas near and far from highways. Cardinals reliably produced predator avoidance responses in quiet trials, but all birds in noisy areas failed to respond, demonstrating that highway noise is loud enough to disrupt this type of survival-related information via masking or cognitive distraction. Birds in family Paridae are abundant, highly social and vocal residents of woodlands across the Holarctic whose alarm calls are used by many species to mediate predation risks. Our work suggests that communication network disruption is likely to be widespread, and could help explain the pattern of reduced biodiversity near roadways.

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Clash of signs: Putting bilingualism back into language evolution

10.31234/osf.io/5uebp ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Steven Samuel

Keyword(s):

Language Evolution ◽

Modern Human ◽

Alarm Calls ◽

Bilingual Children ◽

Human Language ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Typically Developing Children ◽

Modern Humans ◽

The Real ◽

Multiple Languages

Research and thinking into the cognitive aspects of language evolution has usually attempted to account for how the capacity for learning even one modern human language developed. Bilingualism has perhaps been thought of as something to think about only once the ‘real’ puzzle of monolingualism is solved, but this would assume in turn (and without evidence) that bilingualism evolved after monolingualism. All typically-developing children (and adults) are capable of learning multiple languages, and the majority of modern humans are at least bilingual. In this paper I ask whether by skipping bilingualism out of language evolution we have missed a trick. I propose that exposure to synonymous signs, such as food and alarm calls, are a necessary precondition for the abstracting away of sound from referent. In support of this possibility is evidence that modern day bilingual children are better at breaking this ‘word magic’ spell. More generally, language evolution should be viewed through the lens of bilingualism, as this is the end state we are attempting to explain.

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