A first report of separation calls in southern yellow-cheeked gibbons ( Nomascus gabriellae ) in captivity
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A first report of separation calls in southern yellow‑cheeked gibbons (Nomascus gabriellae) in captivity Michal Hradec1 · Gudrun Illmann1,2 · Petra Bolechová1 Received: 9 June 2020 / Accepted: 11 October 2020 © Japan Monkey Centre and Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The effects of social separation, including vocalization, have been studied for a very long time in non-human primates under laboratory conditions. As part of the long-term research on the vocal behaviour of Nomascus gibbons in zoos, this study provides the first record of calls of the southern yellow-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus gabriellae) in response to involuntary separation. Our study revealed that calls were also emitted by an infant (aged 1 year 8 months), and that the acoustic structure of the infant’s calls was similar to that of older individuals’ calls. Separation-induced calls seem to have a shorter developmental convergence than vocalizations with a stable pattern (which are specific for species and sex). The acoustic structure of the calls reported here comprised simple syllables, and differed from the sex- and species-specific vocal patterns of this species. Our findings demonstrate a novel paradigm in this genus, and provide evidence of the ability of gibbons to express distress when socially separated. Keywords Separation call · Vocalization · Gibbons · Nomascus
Introduction In mammalian species, involuntary disruption of social bonds invariably stimulates a characteristic separation response, consisting of behavioural agitation, the tendency to seek reunion with group members and adrenal activation (Ainsworth 1972; Bowlby 1973). The effects of social separation, including vocalization, have been studied primarily in laboratory non-human primates (Hennessy 1997). Most of these studies have focused on the separation of infants from their mothers under laboratory conditions, e.g. rhesus macaque [Macaca mulatta (Bayart et al. 1990)], squirrel monkeys (Saimiri spp. (Masataka and Symmes 1986; Symmes and Biben 1985)], common marmoset [Callithrix jacchus (Yamaguchi et al. 2010), titi monkeys [Callicebus spp. (Cubicciotti and Mason 1976; Fernandez-Duque et al. * Michal Hradec [email protected] 1
Department of Ethology and Companion Animal Science, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 00 Praha–Suchdol, Czech Republic
Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Praha‑Uhříněves 104 01, Czech Republic
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1997; Hoffman et al. 1995] and tufted capuchin [Cebus apella (Byrne and Suomi 1999)]. Only a few similar studies have been undertaken on non-human primates in the wild, e.g. rhesus macaque [M. mulatta (Berman et al. 1994)] and the chacma baboon [Papio cynocephalus ursinus (Rendall et al. 2000)]. With respect to other species of non-human primates, including gibbons (family Hylobatidae), vocalization during involuntary separation outside laboratory conditions has received little attention. Among non-human pr
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