TY - JOUR
T1 - Vocal communication in a fission-fusion society
T2 - Do spider monkeys stay in touch with close associates?
AU - Ramos-Fernández, Gabriel
N1 - Funding Information:
I thank Eulogio and Macedonio Canul, who provided invaluable assistance in the field by locating the study group and by collecting data. R. Seyfarth, D. Cheney, P. Petraitis, D. Janzen, M. Liberman and 2 anonymous reviewers provided ideas and comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript. F. Range performed acoustic analyses on recorded whinnies. I was financed by a graduate scholarship from the National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT, Mexico) and by grants from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (Conabio, Mexico), the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature (FMCN) and the Turner Foundation.
PY - 2005/10
Y1 - 2005/10
N2 - In fission-fusion societies, in which animals from the same group may spend long periods of time apart from each other, individuals could use long-distance vocalizations to maintain contact with others. This could be achieved with vocalizations that simply carried information about the caller's identity and location. I explored this possibility using observations and experiments from a 3-year field study of spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) in Punta Laguna, México, analyzing the use of the species' most frequent vocalization, the whinny. By following 2 subgroups simultaneously, I found that subgroups that were within the active space of the whinny approached each other more often than subgroups that were farther apart. Individual adults in these subgroups also emitted more whinnies when they were within hearing range of another subgroup than when farther apart. I used a paired playback design to determine whether whinnies could influence the behavior of close associates as opposed to nonassociated individuals. Although nonassociates were as likely as close associates to respond vocally to playbacks of whinnies, only a close associate ever approached the speaker. Collectively, the results suggest that whinnies are used by spider monkeys to achieve flexibility in spacing while maintaining specific social relationships.
AB - In fission-fusion societies, in which animals from the same group may spend long periods of time apart from each other, individuals could use long-distance vocalizations to maintain contact with others. This could be achieved with vocalizations that simply carried information about the caller's identity and location. I explored this possibility using observations and experiments from a 3-year field study of spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) in Punta Laguna, México, analyzing the use of the species' most frequent vocalization, the whinny. By following 2 subgroups simultaneously, I found that subgroups that were within the active space of the whinny approached each other more often than subgroups that were farther apart. Individual adults in these subgroups also emitted more whinnies when they were within hearing range of another subgroup than when farther apart. I used a paired playback design to determine whether whinnies could influence the behavior of close associates as opposed to nonassociated individuals. Although nonassociates were as likely as close associates to respond vocally to playbacks of whinnies, only a close associate ever approached the speaker. Collectively, the results suggest that whinnies are used by spider monkeys to achieve flexibility in spacing while maintaining specific social relationships.
KW - Contact calls
KW - Fission-fusion
KW - Playback experiments
KW - Spider monkeys
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=26444574114&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10764-005-6459-z
DO - 10.1007/s10764-005-6459-z
M3 - Artículo
SN - 0164-0291
VL - 26
SP - 1077
EP - 1092
JO - International Journal of Primatology
JF - International Journal of Primatology
IS - 5
ER -