August 31, 2016
An acoustic analysis showed that
similarities between contact calls - known as coos - of female rhesus macaques
may be explained by familiarity rather than relatedness, according a study
published August 31, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Dana
Pfefferle from the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory of the German Primate
Center, Germany, Kurt Hammerschmidt from the Cognitive Ethology Laboratory of
the German Primate Center, Germany, and colleagues.
Previous work has suggested that
non-human primates can recognize the coos of kin, though few have distinguished
between relatedness and familiarity. To
investigate whether call similarities actually reflect relatedness, Pfefferle,
Hammerschmidt, and colleagues recorded and analyzed the acoustic structure of
coos from 67 adult female rhesus macaques in a longstanding colony on the
island of Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. The degree of relatedness was determined
using the colony's long-term genetic database, and familiarity was determined using
factors including age, group- and matrilineal membership.
Contrary to their expectations,
the researchers found coo similarity was predicted by familiarity, but not by
kinship: coo call structure was similar in females that were close in age or
that shared group and matrilineal membership. This suggests that although these
calls appear largely innate, experience and frequent social interaction have
more impact on acoustic similarity than genetic background. To control for the
strong effect of familiarity on the acoustic structure of calls, the
researchers recommend that future studies focus on similarities between
unfamiliar kin.
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