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.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Boersma P, Weenink D (2005) Praat: doing phonetics by computer. Available at http://www.praat.org
Bradbury JW, Vehrencamp SL (1998) Principles of animal communication. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA
Brindley EL (1991) Response of European robins to playback of song: neighbour recognition and overlapping. Anim Behav 41:503–512
Brown TJ, Handford P (2003) Why birds sing at dawn: the role of consistent song transmission. Ibis 145:120–129
Brown CH, Waser PM (1988) Environmental influences on the structure of primate vocalisations. In: Todt D, Goedeking P, Symmens D (eds) Primate vocal communication. Springer, Berlin, pp 51–66
Brown CH, Gomez R, Waser PM (1995) Old World monkey vocalizations—adaptation to the local habitat. Anim Behav 50:945–961
Burt JM, Vehrencamp SL (2005) Dawn chorus as an interactive communication network. In: McGregor PK (ed) Animal communication networks. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 320–344
Campbell DJ (1990) Resolution of spacial complexity in a field sample of singing crickets Teleogryllus commodus: a nearest-neighbour analysis. Anim Behav 39:1051–1057
Da Cunha RGT, Byrne RW (2006) Roars of black howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya): evidence for a function in inter-group spacing. Behaviour 143:1169–1199
Dabelsteen T, Mathevon N (2002) Why do songbirds sing intensively at dawn? A test of the acoustic transmission hypothesis. Acta Ethol 4:65–72
DaSilva GL (1992) The western black-and-white colobus as a low-energy strategist: activity budgets, energy expenditure and energy intake. J Anim Ecol 61:79–91
Delgado RA (2006) Sexual selection in the loud calls of male primates: signal content and function. Int J Primatol 27:5–25
Ey E, Fischer J (2009) The ‘acoustic adaptation hypothesis’—a review of the evidence from birds, anurans, and mammals. Bioacoustics 19:21–48
Fashing PJ (2001a) Male and female strategies during intergroup encounters in guerezas (Colobus guereza): evidence for resource defense mediated through males and a comparison with other primates. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 50:219–230
Fashing PJ (2001b) Activity and ranging patterns of guerezas in the Kakamega Forest: intergroup variation and implications for intragroup feeding. Int J Primatol 22:549–577
Field A (2009) Discovering statistics using SPSS, third edition. SAGE Publications Ltd, London
Fischer J, Kitchen DM, Seyfarth RM, Cheney DL (2004) Baboon loud calls advertise male quality: acoustic features and their relation to rank, age, and exhaustion. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 56:140–148
Fitch WT (1997) Vocal tract length and formant frequency dispersion correlate with body size in rhesus macaques. J Acoust Soc Am 102:1213–1222
Foote JR, Fitzsimmons LP, Mennill DJ, Ratcliffe LM (2011) Male black-capped chickadees begin dawn chorusing earlier in response to simulated territorial insertions. Anim Behav 81:871–877
Grava T, Grava A, Otter KA (2009) Supplemental feeding and dawn singing in black-capped chickadees. Condor 111:560–564
Gursky S (2003) Lunar philia in a nocturnal primate. Int J Primatol 24:351–367
Hammerschmidt K, Ansorge V, Fischer J, Todt D (1994) Dusk calling in barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus): demand for social shelter. Am J Primatol 32:277–289
Harris TR (2006a) Between-group contest competition for food in a highly folivorous population of black and white colobus monkeys (Colobus guereza). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 61:317–329
Harris TR (2006b) Within-and among-male variation in roaring by black and white colobus monkeys (Colobus guereza): what does it reveal about function? Behaviour 143:197–218
Harris TR (2010) Multiple resource values and fighting ability measures influence intergroup conflict in guerezas (Colobus guereza). Anim Behav 79:89–98
Harris TR, Fitch WT, Goldstein LM, Fashing PJ (2006) Black and white colobus monkey (Colobus guereza) roars as a source of both honest and exaggerated information about body mass. Ethology 112:911–920
Henwood K, Fabrick A (1979) A quantitative analysis of the dawn chorus: temporal selection for community optimization. Am Nat 114:260–274
Höbel G (2011) Variation in signal timing behavior: implications for male attractiveness and sexual selection. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 65:1283–1294
Horwich RH, Gebhard K (1983) Roaring rhythms in black howler monkeys (Alouatta pigra) of Belize. Primates 24:290–296
Hutchinson JMC (2002) Two explanations of the dawn chorus compared: how monotonically changing light levels favour a short break from singing. Anim Behav 64:527–539
Kacelnik A, Krebs JR (1982) The dawn chorus in the great tit (Parus major): proximate and ultimate causes. Behaviour 83:287–309
Kitchen DM, Seyfarth RM, Fischer J, Cheney DL (2003) Loud calls as indicators of dominance in male baboons (Papio cynocephalus ursinus). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 53:374–384
Lemasson A, Gandon A, Hausberger M (2010) Attention to elders’ voice in non-human primates. Biol Lett 6:325–328. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2009.0875
Marler P (1969) Colobus guereza: territoriality and group composition. Science 163:93–95
Marler P (1972) Vocalizations of East African monkeys: II. Black and white colobus. Behaviour 42:175–197
Morton ES (1975) Ecological sources of selection on avian sounds. Am Nat 109:17–34
Naguib M, Wiley RH (2001) Estimating the distance to a source of sound: mechanisms and adaptations for long-range communication. Anim Behav 62:825–837
Naguib M, Mennill DJ (2010) The signal value of birdsong: empirical evidence suggests song overlapping is a signal. Anim Behav 80:e11–e15
Nash LT (2007) Moonlight and behavior in nocturnal and cathemeral primates, especially Lepilemur leucopus: illuminating possible anti-predator efforts. In: Nekaris SLG (ed) Primate anti-predator strategies. Springer, US, pp 173–205
Oates JF (1977) The social life of black-and-white colobus monkeys, Colobus guereza. Z Tierpsychol 45:1–60
Peng CJ, Lee KL, Ingersoll GM (2002) An introduction to logistic regression analysis and reporting. J Educ Res 96:3–14
Plumptre AJ (2000) Monitoring mammal populations with line transect techniques in African forests. J Appl Ecol 37:356–368
Plumptre AJ, Reynolds V, Bakuneeta C (1997) The effects of selective logging in monodominant tropical forests on biodiversity. Final report of ODA project number R6057 In: Budongo Forest Project, Institute of Biological Anthropology, University of Oxford
Riede T, Fitch WT (1999) Vocal tract length and acoustics of vocalization in the domestic dog (Canis familiaris). J Exp Biol 202:2859–2867
Robinson DJ, Hall MJ (2002) Sound signalling in Orthoptera. In: Evans P (ed) Advances in insect physiology. Elsevier Ltd., Amsterdam, pp 151–278
Schel AM (2009) Anti-predator behaviour of guereza colobus monkeys (Colobus guereza). In: Psychology. University of St Andrews, St Andrews, pp 246–257
Schel AM, Tranquilli S, Zuberbühler K (2009) The alarm call system of two species black-and-white colobus monkeys (Colobus polykomos and Colobus guereza). J Comp Psychol 123:136–150
Schel AM, Candiotti A, Zuberbühler K (2010) Predator-deterring alarm call sequences in guereza colobus monkeys are meaningful to conspecifics. Anim Behav 80:799–808
Sekulic R (1982) The function of howling in red howler monkeys (Alouatta seniculus). Behaviour 81:38–54
Sicotte P, Teichroeb JA, Saj TL (2007) Aspects of male competition in Colobus vellerosus: preliminary data on male and female loud calling, and infant deaths after a takeover. Int J Primatol 28:627–636
Smuts BB (1987) Primate societies. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Snowdon CT (2001) Social processes in communication and cognition in callitrichid monkeys: a review. Anim Cogn 4:247–257
Snowdon CT, Cleveland J (1984) Conversations among pygmy marmosets. Am J Prim 7:15–20
Steenbeek R, Piek RC, van Buul M, van Hooff JARAM (1999) Vigilance in wild Thomas’s langurs (Presbytis thomasi): the importance of infanticide risk. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 45:137–150
Walker TJ, Forrest TG (1989) Mole cricket phonotaxis: effects of intensity of synthetic calling song (Scapteriscus acletus). Fla Entomol 72:655–659
Waser PM, Brown CH (1984) Is there a ‘sound window’ for primate communication? Behav Ecol Sociobiol 15:73–76
Waser PM, Brown CH (1986) Habitat acoustics and primate communication. Am J Primatol 10:135–154
Waser PM, Waser MS (1977) Experimental studies of primate vocalizations: specializations for long-distance propagation. Z Tierpsychol 43:239–263
Whitten AJ (1982) The ecology of singing in kloss gibbons (Hylobates klosii) on Siberut island, Indonesia. Int J Primatol 3:33–51
Wich SA, Nunn CL (2002) Do male “long-distance calls” function in mate defense? A comparative study of long-distance calls in primates. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 52:474–484
Wich SA, Koski S, de Vries H, van Schaik CP (2003) Individual and contextual variation in Thomas langur male loud calls. Ethology 109:1–13
Wiley RH, Richards DG (1978) Physical constraints on acoustic communication in the atmosphere: implications for the evolution of animal vocalizations. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 3:69–94
Young AM (1981) Temporal selection for communicatory optimization: the dawn–dusk chorus as an adaptation in tropical cicadas. Am Nat 117:826–829
Acknowledgements
We thank the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland for providing core funding for the Budongo Conservation Field Station. We are grateful to Gophine Erickson for assistance in the field. This research was funded by the European Commission (FP6 ‘what it means to be human’), the Leverhulme Trust, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Schure Beijerinck Poppink Fonds and Dobberke Stichting from the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie vanWetenschappen (KNAW). C. Crockford, C. Hobaiter, S. Pika, E. Bowman, N. Mathevon, I. Charrier and three anonymous reviewers contributed with valuable discussions and comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.
Ethical standards
Research clearance allowing the authors to conduct experiments in Uganda was granted by the Uganda Wildlife Authority, the President’s Office and the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (NS263). All conducted experiments complied with the current laws of Uganda.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by M. Charpentier
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
ESM 1
(MP3 1,593 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schel, A.M., Zuberbühler, K. Dawn chorusing in guereza colobus monkeys. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 66, 361–373 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-011-1282-3
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-011-1282-3