LEARNING to SPEAK MONKEY
Many species of animals have various warning calls to alert other clan members that a predator is nearby. For example, Diana monkeys from the Tai Forest in the Ivory Coast of West Africa have separate alarm calls when faced with panthers or eagles. This is because they need different responses when faced with these predators--to escape to the edge branches in the case of a panther, and to the ground in the case of an eagle. This allows for the survival of more members of a clan, as the response will be more specific.
In the same Tai Forest, another species, Campbell's monkeys, have their own distinct calls for various types of predators. Their calls are also distinct from the Diana monkey calls. The interesting part is that when a Campbell's monkey alarm call is played in front of a Diana monkey, the Diana monkey responds in the correct way--up a tree if it's a panther call, etc. This shows that Diana monkeys are able to understand the "language" of a different species. This is true for the approximate 10 species of monkeys living in this lush jungle.
So far, this all seems to make perfectly logical sense for the survival of all these monkey species that happen to have the same predators. It is beneficial for all of them to be able to know when a predator approaches, even if it's not your own clan member that sees the predator first. But the translations don't end there. When the same Campbell's monkey alarm calls are played for different species of birds in the same area (Horned Bills, etc.), the birds showed they are also capable of distinguishing the different monkeys calls. Two extremely different species living in the same space still communicate indirectly. That's like a UMass student being able to understand "Hey, watch out" in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Swahili, Russian, Polish, Mandarin, Arabic, and Vietnamese. Which is pretty impressive.
Other examples of cross-family alarm call understanding have been discovered, such as in the Gunther's dik-diks of Eastern Africa. These small antelope have only a few calls, and only one alarm call, but are able to understand and react to the alarm call of the white-bellied go-away birds (yes that's really what they're called) that live nearby. It just goes to show that when it comes to survival, just about any tactic can be accomplished.
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Posted by Rachael Mroz (3)
This is a really interesting topic that I really have never thought about before. When different species live in the same area for so long I guess they are bound to pick up on the habits of their neighbors. I wonder if these animals are born with the ability to recognize simple warning calls from other types of animals or is it just a straight plastic process? If it is only a learned behavior we really need to give these species more credit for understanding and recognizing their environment so well. I can only assume we as humans also had this ability back when we lived alongside these animals.
ReplyDeletePosted by Jake Lafauce
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ReplyDeleteHow neat is that! I wonder if the bird species have alarm calls as well; and if so, if the monkeys would be capable of recognizing and responding correctly to them. All these examples really are quite amazing when compared to the scope of human cognitive skills. Not only are they interpreting different languages within their own species (which we struggle with), they are able to successfully interpret the languages of entirely different species!
ReplyDeletePosted by Johanna Brophy
I had no idea that animals could distinguish calls in such a profound way! This is very impressive, especially in retrospect to human capabilities. I too wonder if this is ability to learn calls from species that are drastically different from their own is learned or innate. If the ability is indeed learned, they probably inferred the meanings of various calls from different contextual clues. If a bird heard the call of a monkey, and realized that a predator appeared immediately after the call was produced, they would associate that call with alarm over a series of occurrences.
ReplyDeletePosted by Sara Corey
Monkeys...they are so amazing. Even still, today scientists are discovering new profound ways primates communicate. I would have to say they are more or less complex than humans depending on context. The alarm call is so simple, yet effective that humans should aspire to create something the same.
ReplyDeletePosted by: Em Arsenault
What I find interesting about this research is that it supports the hypothesis that nouns are the first particles of complex language to develop. Animals that have a large vocabulary of calls but don't have any syntax, like most primates still possess distinct "words" for different predators in their environments. There is also evidence that whales and dolphins have names for each other and can gossip about individuals amongst themselves when the individual in question is not present.
ReplyDeleteposted by Dave Magrass
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