Anne Marijke Schel & Klaus Zuberbühler (2012): Dawn chorusing in guereza
colobus monkeys. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 66 (3), 361-373.
Abstract: Dawn chorusing by guereza black-and-white colobus monkeys is one
of the most impressive spectacles of African rainforests. This vocal
behaviour is highly contagious, travelling from one neighbouring group to
the next, until a wide forest area is covered by calling monkeys. Chorusing
usually occurs up to 2 h before dawn, sometimes more than once, unless the
preceding night was cold and wet. We conducted a series of playback
experiments, which showed that guerezas? chorusing was difficult to elicit
experimentally, suggesting that callers took several variables into account
before responding to other monkeys? predawn calls. Acoustic analyses showed
that morning calls were individually distinct, but we found no evidence that
callers took individual identity into account in their decision to
participate in chorusing. The only way to reliably elicit chorusing in our
study area was to broadcast recordings of morning choruses for longer than
30 s and at a time when a chorus simultaneously emerged in a distant part of
the forest.
URL: http://www.springerlink.com/content/xx13437p61701128/
For reprints please contact A. M. Schel (email:
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Sonja
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