The Importance Of Primate Vocal Communication

A few weeks ago, I spent a lovely Monday afternoon observing two different primates at the Santa Ana Zoo. I got to the zoo around two in the afternoon, and to my surprise, the zoo was decently crowded. The Santa Ana Zoo is smaller in comparison to other zoos like the Los Angeles Zoo, but still had a decent amount of animals there. Covering a small 20 acres of land, I came across two primates that fit perfectly for the purposes of this course project. I chose to observe an endangered ape, the white-handed gibbon, and an endangered new world monkey, the golden-headed lion tamarin.

Non-human primates’ communication based on a limited range of sounds and gestures. Human communication is far more focused on the use of oral sounds. The human voice and non-human primate vocalizations are characterized by important differences. Our speech is radically different from other sounds used by non-human primates to communicate. Vocal perception abilities through conspecific vocalizations are important in social interactions. Only human possess speech perception to communicate in a highly efficient manner (Belin, 2006). Human and non-human primates’ vocalization differs in the morphology of the vocal apparatus and acoustic structure (Fitch 2000, 2003). Primates such as monkeys possess vocal folds in the vocal tract which are absent in humans (Schon Ybarra 1995). The larynx in the vocal tract of human is much lower compared to the non-human primates. The lowered larynx allows the increase of flexibility of the tongue and thus yielding a large range of frequencies. In contrast, higher larynx leads to inflexibility of the tongue thus limiting the non-human primates’ ability to yield acoustically distinct sounds through their vocal tract (Belin, 2006). In addition, non-human primates do not use their tongue to modify the shape of the vocal tract for the production of sound. The distinct production of human speech involves

Primates are one of the most interesting mammals on earth, not only because of their complex social structures, but because they hold so many similar characteristics to humans. Primates are often cited as our closest living relatives and on two separate occasions I observed four separate species of primates at the San Diego Zoo that can justify their use of their physical characteristics and behaviors that may be similar as well as different to the other primates and ours.

Within this essay, we will study more in depth the behavioral as well as physical traits of two primates at a zoo from their interaction with their peers to their place in the group. This observation would enable us to further understand the possible existing correlation between humans and primates. First, I studied a female chimpanzee with her baby, and then, a dominant male gorilla, in San Francisco Zoo at about noon, on May 23, 2015, for an hour each. Even though they share some similarities such as having a large brain, living for a long time, and being bored in their enclosure, they are still different; when gorillas are the largest, chimpanzees are the smartest. In fact, chimps use tools to catch food, they would not be able to reach

Primates have always been a fascination of author Robert Sapolsky who wrote an autobiography about a trip he took to Kenya as a research undergraduate student. Part 1 is named the adolescent years and talks about when Sapolsky first joined the baboon trip to Kenya. It introduces his research assignment, how stress affected a primates health, and the baboons he recorded his data from. Soloman was the alpha male and Leah was the alpha female. Devorah was the most eligible female in the group. Ruth, a lower-ranking baboon, who had difficulty finding a mate settled down with Joshua, another lower-ranking baboon. They soon had Obadiah. Uriah a large baboon who transferred into the group in the spring persisted a challenge against Soloman until he

Humans and other primates both communicate using many different vocal sounds, though humans have broad and detailed languages. All primates are very vocal animals, though other forms of communication are often used. Humans have a complex language of hand signals (sign language) that is used. Through studies it has been found that other primates use their

Play is expressed as being one of the most sophisticated forms of primate-to-primate interaction (Demaru et al. 2015). During play, the main form of emotional communication is through facial expression (Demaru et al. 2015). In humans, facial expressions are a universal display of non-verbal communication, and they are immediately read and responded to by conspecifics that bear witness to them (Cattaneo & Pavesi 2014). Play faces (PF) – an open mouth, or an open mouth with teeth showing- are used to signal the want to play and are influenced by characteristics of the play interaction (Demaru et al. 2015). For instance, aggressive behavior during play can influence the PF (Demaru et al. 2015).

This research paper will discuss the ways in which non-human primates use different sound and gestures to convey different feeling and emotions toward one another like humans. A primate is “a mammal of an order that includes the Lemurs, Bushbabies, Tarsiers, Marmosets, Monkeys, Apes, and Humans” (Oxford). What makes us human are our language, our culture, and our behavior. We as humans have feelings of joy, sadness, fear, anger, trust, and so much more, but have we ever stopped to wonder how or if our nonhuman primate relatives have and use these emotions just like us. These next couple paragraphs will explain and discuss what emotions are felt and how emotions are conveyed in the nonhuman primate culture.

The captivity of primates in zoos can be viewed as maltreatment by animal welfare organizations since confining them in such establishments is going against their rights to be liberated and it may cause some unwanted stress, yet zoos provide various enrichment programs, medicinal assistance, scheduled meals that are appropriate for the primate’s diet, and conservation of the said animal. Primate captivity in zoos can be regarded as both moral and unethical for it imprisons primates, however, as their natural habitat dwindles, zoos also preserve primate population through captive breeding. Furthermore, zoos simultaneously deform the lives of the primates, garner sympathetic reactions from humans for these creatures, and inform

In the end, the Golden – Cheeked Gibbon is a fascinating primate that has a unique style of motion and call. While I did not experience that call that the gibbon uses to either have a mating partner or claim its own territory, it does exist. Their way of moving throughout the enclosure is fascinating to watch as they swing their long arms around. Moving from prop to prop they are easily able to move from one side of the enclosure in under ten seconds. The primates provided key examples on similarities that humans share with these animals, and other primates. The interaction

Language is a form of communication and can be portrayed in many different ways not just vocalization, this is shown by those that use sign language rather than vocalization; these humans still have complex language but they lack the necessary organs or capabilities to produce all of the sounds needed for vocal language; similarly, some non-human primates use different interactions as language not just production and combinations of sounds. Non-human primates do not have the ability to vocalize the way humans do because they lack vocal cords, control of the necessary vocalization, and other speech organs, but that does not mean that they cannot effectively communicate through language with other non-human primates or with humans as well.

Also, the primate’s brain sizes and active social life make their more intelligent than other animals. For example, the chimpanzees that separate to look for food and then come together to eat since they are all related to each other. It helps defend each other and thus ensure their survival. Like the primates the grandparents, in their early years as a species, older women helped gather food for their offspring’s offspring. They were freeing up their daughters to have more children, more quickly. So the most evolutionarily fit grandparents have the most grandchildren, to whom they pass on their longevity-promoting genes. Finally, I could relate the paper to the course with the hominins that forms social networks, clans, and groups of greater

The first topic addressed in this book that I will focus on is the social behavior of apes, specifically on courting rituals and mating behavior, such as the love dance performed by the “humans” in the novel. The second topic is the (in)capability of apes to produce human speech. In the novel, the apes all speak human language, but in reality, this is not a likely possibility.

Scientists say bonnet macaques at one animal reserve[9] respond to recorded Nilgiri langur alarm shrieks but are slower to flee after a similar cry by Hanuman langurs—which would rarely be seen there. Farther north, only Hanuman langurs are common and bonnet macaques there have learned the opposite langur language. They jump at the sound of Hanuman warnings but are less bothered by Nilgiri cries. Eavesdropping on the alarm signals of other animals is useful, but spying on predators directly also has advantages.

Like human beings, animals also communicate among themselves through gestures and body movements. Monkeys always carry their