Wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) distinguish between different scream types: evidence from a playback study

Slocombe, Katie E.; Townsend, Simon W.; Zuberbühler, Klaus

doi:10.1007/s10071-008-0204-x

Cited by 87 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…For example, chimpanzees distinguish between scream calls given in different contexts. Screams given when the vocalizer was the recipient of mild as opposed to severe aggression elicited different responses, as did acoustically similar screams given when an individual experienced social frustration but no physical violence [101]. Thus, calls that sound the same to us can have very different meanings to our study animals and elicit very different responses that are unrelated to numerical advantage.…”

Section: The Use Of Playback Experiments To Assess Quantitative Abilimentioning

confidence: 78%

Numerical assessment in the wild: insights from social carnivores

Benson‐Amram

Gilfillan

McComb

2018

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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SummaryPlayback experiments have proven to be a useful tool to investigate the extent to which wild animals understand numerical concepts and the factors that play into their decisions to respond to different numbers of vocalizing conspecifics. In particular, playback experiments have broadened our understanding of the cognitive abilities of historically understudied species that are challenging to test in the traditional laboratory, such as members of the Order Carnivora. Additionally, playback experiments allow us to assess the importance of numerical information versus other ecologically important variables when animals are making adaptive decisions in their natural habitats. Here, webegin by reviewing what we know about quantity discrimination in carnivores from studies conducted in captivity. We then review a series of playback experiments conducted with wild social carnivores, including African lions, spotted hyenas, and wolves, which demonstrate that these animals can assess the number of conspecifics calling and respond based on numerical advantage.We discuss how the wild studies compliment those conducted in captivity and allow us to gain insights into why wild animals may not always respond based solely on differences in quantity. We then consider the key role that individual discrimination and cross-modal recognition play in the 2 ability of animals to assess the number of conspecifics vocalizing nearby. Finally, we explore new directions for future research in this area, highlighting in particular the need for further work on the cognitive basis of numerical assessment skills and experimental paradigms that can be effective in both captive and wild settings.

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Section: The Use Of Playback Experiments To Assess Quantitative Abilimentioning

confidence: 78%

Numerical assessment in the wild: insights from social carnivores

Benson‐Amram

Gilfillan

McComb

2018

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…Their acoustic features can also be correlated with different types of aggression (Gouzoules et al 1984), the caller's role in the interaction (Slocombe & Zuberbühler 2005), or the presence of a particular 'audience' (Slocombe & Zuberbühler 2007). As a result, screams used in playback experiments elicit different responses from different individuals, or from the same individual under different circumstances Gouzoules et al 1984;Palombit et al 1997;Fischer 2004;Fugate et al 2008;Slocombe et al 2009). Here again, an exclusive focus on the screams' aversive qualities cannot explain these results.…”

Section: Information In Animal Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The central importance of information in studies of animal communication

et al. 2010

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Keywords:animal communication animal signal information information transmission language meaningThe concept of information plays a central role in studies of animal communication. Animals' responses to the calls of different individuals, to food calls, alarm calls, and to signals that predict behaviour, all suggest that recipients acquire information from signals and that this information affects their response. Some scientists, however, want to replace the concept of information with one based on the 'manipulation' of recipients by signallers through the induction of nervous-system responses. Here we review both theory and data that argue against hypotheses based exclusively on manipulation or on a fixed, obligatory link between a signal's physical features and the responses it elicits. Results from dozens of studies indicate that calls with 'arousing' or 'aversive' features may also contain information that affects receivers' responses; that acoustically similar calls can elicit different responses; acoustically different calls can elicit similar responses; and 'eavesdropping' animals respond to the relationship instantiated by signal sequences. Animal signals encode a surprisingly rich amount of information. The content of this information can be studied scientifically.

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“…These calls are not automatic, but instead are given preferentially in the presence of valuable social partners [67]. There is also both observational and experimental playback evidence for the use of vocalizations that distinguish the social roles of participants (aggressor versus victim), allowing listeners to discriminate the direction of aggression in fights they cannot see [68], and likewise recognize the severity of the attack being made [69].…”

Section: (B) Egalitarianismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The human socio-cognitive niche and its evolutionary origins

Whiten

Erdal

2012

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

277

216

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Hominin evolution took a remarkable pathway, as the foraging strategy extended to large mammalian prey already hunted by a guild of specialist carnivores. How was this possible for a moderately sized ape lacking the formidable anatomical adaptations of these competing 'professional hunters'? The long-standing answer that this was achieved through the elaboration of a new 'cognitive niche' reliant on intelligence and technology is compelling, yet insufficient. Here we present evidence from a diversity of sources supporting the hypothesis that a fuller answer lies in the evolution of a new socio-cognitive niche, the principal components of which include forms of cooperation, egalitarianism, mindreading (also known as 'theory of mind'), language and cultural transmission, that go far beyond the most comparable phenomena in other primates. This cognitive and behavioural complex allows a human hunter -gatherer band to function as a unique and highly competitive predatory organism. Each of these core components of the socio-cognitive niche is distinctive to humans, but primate research has increasingly identified related capacities that permit inferences about significant ancestral cognitive foundations to the five pillars of the human social cognitive niche listed earlier. The principal focus of the present study was to review and integrate this range of recent comparative discoveries.

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Wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) distinguish between different scream types: evidence from a playback study

Cited by 87 publications

References 32 publications

Numerical assessment in the wild: insights from social carnivores

Numerical assessment in the wild: insights from social carnivores

The central importance of information in studies of animal communication

The human socio-cognitive niche and its evolutionary origins

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