Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T06:23:21.320Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

25 - Evidence for sexual dimorphism in chimpanzee vocalizations: a comparison of male and female call production and acoustic parameters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2019

Christophe Boesch
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
Roman Wittig
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
Catherine Crockford
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
Linda Vigilant
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
Tobias Deschner
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
Fabian Leendertz
Affiliation:
Robert Koch-Institut, Germany
Get access

Summary

In humans, differences in voice quality influence sexual attraction and perceived dominance, but little is known about such mechanisms in Pan. Here, we investigated the degree of sexual dimorphism in chimpanzee vocalizations. We expected the sexes to differ in mean fundamental (F0) and peak frequencies (pF) according to the source filter theory, which predicts that differences in body size affect vocal characteristics. Using data from nine chimpanzees of the South Group, we analysed call rates and measured F0, pF and durations from pant–hoots and food calls. We also tested for sex differences in bout duration and the number of food grunts per bout. Males and females had equal rates of call production for all signals except pant–hoots and buttress-drumming, with males producing these significantly more often. Additionally, contrary to predictions based on body size, female food grunts were lower in dominant frequency bands and peak frequencies while males produced longer food-call bouts with a greater number of tonal grunts. Further analyses should address whether these sex differences in acoustic parameters could play a role in female choice and male competition in chimpanzees.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Chimpanzees of the Taï Forest
40 Years of Research
, pp. 410 - 421
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, D. C. & Anthony, C. D. (1996). Using randomization techniques to analyse behavioural data. Animal Behaviour, 51, 733738. https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.1996.0077Google Scholar
Arcadi, A. C. (1996). Phrase structure of wild chimpanzee pant hoots: Patterns of production and interpopulation variability. American Journal of Primatology, 39, 159178.Google Scholar
Barelli, C., Mundry, R., Heistermann, M. & Hammerschmidt, K. (2013). Cues to androgens and quality in male gibbon songs. PLoS ONE, 8(12), e82748. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082748CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bates, D., Mächler, M., Bolker, B. & Walker, S. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1). https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01Google Scholar
Bates, D., Maechler, M., Bolker, B., Walker, S., Christensen, R. H. B., Singmann, H., et al. (2016). lme4: Linear Mixed-Effects Models using ‘Eigen’ and S4 (Version 1.1–12).Google Scholar
Benítez, M. E., Le Roux, A., Fischer, J., Beehner, J. C. & Bergman, T. J. (2016). Acoustic and temporal variation in gelada (Theropithecus gelada) loud calls advertise male quality. International Journal of Primatology, 37, 568585. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-016–9922–0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boersma, P. (2001). Praat, a system for doing phonetics by computer. Glot International, 5, 341345.Google Scholar
Briefer, E. F. (2012). Vocal expression of emotions in mammals: Mechanisms of production and evidence. Journal of Zoology, 288, 120. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469–7998.2012.00920.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, A. P. (1993). Rank differences in the production of vocalizations by wild chimpanzees as a function of social context. American Journal of Primatology, 31, 159179. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.1350310302Google Scholar
Clutton-Brock, T. (2007). Sexual selection in males and females. Science, 318(5858), 18821885. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1133311CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clutton-Brock, T. (2016). Reproductive competition among males. In Mammal Societies (pp. 427466). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Crockford, C. & Boesch, C. (2003). Context-specific calls in wild chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus: Analysis of barks. Animal Behaviour, 66, 115125. https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.2003.2166CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, N. B. & Halliday, T. R. (1978). Deep croaks and fighting assessment in toads Bufo bufo. Nature, 274(5672), 683685. https://doi.org/10.1038/274683a0Google Scholar
Dobson, A. J. & Barnett, A. (2008). An Introduction to Generalized Linear Models. Boca Raton: Chapman and Hall/CRC.Google Scholar
East, M. L. & Hofer, H. (1991). Loud calling in a female-dominated mammalian society: II. Behavioural contexts and functions of whooping of spotted hyaenas, Crocuta crocuta. Animal Behaviour, 42, 651669. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003–3472(05)80247–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ey, E., Pfefferle, D. & Fischer, J. (2007). Do age- and sex-related variations reliably reflect body size in non-human primate vocalizations? A review. Primates, 48, 253267. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-006–0033–yCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fedurek, P., Slocombe, K. E., Enigk, D. K., Thompson, M. E., Wrangham, R. W. & Muller, M. N. (2016). The relationship between testosterone and long-distance calling in wild male chimpanzees. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 70, 659672. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-016–2087–1Google Scholar
Fischer, J., Kitchen, D. M., Seyfarth, R. M. & Cheney, D. L. (2004). Baboon loud calls advertise male quality: Acoustic features and their relation to rank, age, and exhaustion. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 56, 140148. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003–0739–4Google Scholar
Fitch, W. T. (1997). Vocal tract length and formant frequency dispersion correlate with body size in rhesus macaques. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 102, 12131222. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.421048CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fitch, W. T. & Hauser, M. D. (2003). Unpacking ‘honesty’: Vertebrate vocal production and the evolution of acoustic signals. In Simmons, A. M., Fay, R. R. & Popper, A. N. (eds.), Acoustic Communication (pp. 65137). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Forstmeier, W. & Schielzeth, H. (2011). Cryptic multiple hypotheses testing in linear models: Overestimated effect sizes and the winner’s curse. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 65, 4755. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-010–1038–5Google Scholar
Gil, D. & Gahr, M. (2002). The honesty of bird song: Multiple constraints for multiple traits. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 17, 133141. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169–5347(02)02410–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grawunder, S., Crockford, C., Clay, Z., Kalan, A. K., Stevens, J. M., Stoessel, A., et al. (2018). Higher fundamental frequency in bonobos is explained by larynx morphology. Current Biology, 28, R1188R1189.Google Scholar
Hill, K., Boesch, C., Goodall, J., Pusey, A. E., Williams, J. & Wrangham, R. W. (2001). Mortality rates among wild chimpanzees. Journal of Human Evolution, 40, 437450. https://doi.org/10.1006/jhev.2001.0469Google Scholar
Jungers, W. L. & Susman, R. L. (1984). Body size and skeletal allometry in African apes. In Susman, R. L. (ed.), The Pygmy Chimpanzee: Evolutionary Biology and Behavior (pp. 131177). New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Kalan, A. K. & Boesch, C. (2015). Audience effects in chimpanzee food calls and their potential for recruiting others. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 69, 17011712. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015–1982–1Google Scholar
Kalan, A. K., Mundry, R. & Boesch, C. (2015). Wild chimpanzees modify food call structure with respect to tree size for a particular fruit species. Animal Behaviour, 101, 19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.12.011Google Scholar
Kitchen, D. M., Seyfarth, R. M., Fischer, J. & Cheney, D. L. (2003). Loud calls as indicators of dominance in male baboons (Papio cynocephalus ursinus). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 53, 374384. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003–0588–1Google Scholar
Kojima, S., Izumi, A. & Ceugniet, M. (2003). Identification of vocalizers by pant hoots, pant grunts and screams in a chimpanzee. Primates, 44, 225230. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-002–0014–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marler, P. & Hobbett, L. (1975). Individuality in a long-range vocalization of wild chimpanzees. Zeitschrift Für Tierpsychologie, 38, 97109. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439–0310.1975.tb01994.xGoogle Scholar
McClelland, B. E., Wilczynski, W. & Ryan, M. J. (1996). Correlations between call characteristics and morphology in male cricket frogs (Acris crepitans). Journal of Experimental Biology, 199, 19071919.Google Scholar
McComb, K. E. (1991). Female choice for high roaring rates in red deer, Cervus elaphus. Animal Behaviour, 41, 7988. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003–3472(05)80504–4Google Scholar
Mitani, J. C. (1985). Sexual selection and adult male orangutan long calls. Animal Behaviour, 33, 272283. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-3472(85)80141–XGoogle Scholar
Muller, M. N. & Mitani, J. C. (2005). Conflict and cooperation in wild chimpanzees. Advances in the Study of Behaviour, 35, 275331.Google Scholar
Neumann, C., Assahad, G., Hammerschmidt, K., Perwitasari-Farajallah, D. & Engelhardt, A. (2010). Loud calls in male crested macaques, Macaca nigra: A signal of dominance in a tolerant species. Animal Behaviour, 79, 187193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.10.026CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfefferle, D., West, P. M., Grinnell, J., Packer, C. & Fischer, J. (2007). Do acoustic features of lion, Panthera leo, roars reflect sex and male condition? Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 121, 39473953. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.2722507Google Scholar
Pitcher, B. J., Briefer, E. F., Vannoni, E. & McElligott, A. G. (2014). Fallow bucks attend to vocal cues of motivation and fatigue. Behavioral Ecology, 25, 392401. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/art131CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potter, D. M. & Griffiths, D. J. (2006). Omnibus permutation tests of the overall null hypothesis in datasets with many covariates. Journal of Biopharmaceutical Statistics, 16, 327341. https://doi.org/10.1080/10543400600609585Google Scholar
Puts, D. A., Gaulin, S. J. C. & Verdolini, K. (2006). Dominance and the evolution of sexual dimorphism in human voice pitch. Evolution and Human Behavior, 27, 283296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2005.11.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Puts, D. A., Hill, A. K., Bailey, D. H., Walker, R. S., Rendall, D., Wheatley, J. R., et al. (2016). Sexual selection on male vocal fundamental frequency in humans and other anthropoids. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 283(1829). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.2830Google Scholar
R Core Team. (2016). R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.Google Scholar
Reby, D. & McComb, K. (2003). Anatomical constraints generate honesty: Acoustic cues to age and weight in the roars of red deer stags. Animal Behaviour, 65, 519530. https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.2003.2078Google Scholar
Reno, P. L., Meindl, R. S., McCollum, M. A. & Lovejoy, C. O. (2003). Sexual dimorphism in Australopithecus afarensis was similar to that of modern humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 100, 94049409. https://doi.org/10.1073/Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.1133180100CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Searcy, W. A. & Andersson, M. (1986). Sexual selection and the evolution of song. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 17, 507533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vannoni, E. & McElligott, A. G. (2008). Low frequency groans indicate larger and more dominant fallow deer (Dama dama) males. PLoS ONE, 3(9), e3113. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0003113Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×