Duetting in the Titi Monkey Callicebus cupreus: Structure, Pair Specificity and Development of Duets

Abstract

Duets from a total of 6 female and 6 male titi monkeys (Callicebus cupreus) were analysed in order to provide an in-depth analysis of the duet structure, to investigate whether duets are pair specific and to examine whether duets of newly formed pairs differ from those of established pairs. Callicebus duets are composed of alternately uttered male and female contributions. Duets were pair specific as a result of a summation of individual attributes of the two mates rather than due to unidirectional or reciprocal song adaptation by mates. The two examined newly formed pairs produced species-typical duets from the first day on, but their duets showed greater variability in sequence durations than those of established pairs.

Turn-taking in Human Communication – Origins and Implications for Language Processing

“…The vocal systems of the 300 primate species remain understudied, but we have detailed reports of vocal turn-taking or alternating duetting from all the major branches of the family: (i) from the lemurs, Lepilemur edwardsi [53], (ii) from New World monkeys the common marmoset Callithrix jacchus [54,55], the pygmy marmoset Cebuella pygmaea [56], the coppery titi Callicebus cupreus [57], and squirrel monkeys of the Saimiri genus [58]; (iii) from the Old World monkeys Campbell's monkey Cercopithecus campbelli [59], and (iv) from the lesser apes, siamangs Hylobates syndactylus [60,61]. One can expect that many other cases are yet to be reported.…”

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

“…The most studied vocal behaviour is "duetting", long and loud sequences of calls uttered by the mated pair in a coordinated way. Duets can be produced spontaneously or in response to the duets by other breeding pairs, a behaviour that seems to function in delineating or enforcing territorial boundaries (Moynihan 1966;Kinzey et al 1977;Kinzey 1981;Robinson 1979bRobinson , a, 1981Kinzey and Robinson 1983;Robinson et al 1987;Müller 1995;Müller and Anzenberger 2002).…”

Habitat Utilization of Blue-Eyed Black Lemurs,Eulemur Macaco Flavifrons(Gray, 1867), in Primary and Altered Forest Fragments

“…It seems, however, that most nocturnal pair-living species differ in their degree of cohesiveness from diurnal pair-living primate species because males and females are only loosely associated (Müller and Thalmann 2000;Schülke and Kappeler 2003). In contrast to cohesive pairs that have frequent grooming bouts, small inter-individual distances and close coordination of the behavior of male and females (Müller and Anzenberger 2002), the "dispersed pairs" share the same home-range but are not continuously associated during their period of activity (for example, the Masoala forkmarked lemur: Schülke and Kappeler 2003). As dispersed pairs combine aspects of the likely evolutionary change of a solitary social organization to pair living, they may represent the earliest and most primitive form of sociality (Dröscher and Kappeler 2013).…”