Wild gelada monkeys detect emotional and prosocial cues in vocal exchanges during aggression.
Recognizing vocal behaviours intended to benefit others is a crucial yet understudied social skill. Primates with rich vocal repertoires and complex societies are excellent models to track the evolution of such capacity. Here, we exposed wild geladas (Theropithecus gelada) to vocal exchanges between...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2025-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0323295 |
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| author | Luca Pedruzzi Martina Francesconi Alice Galotti Bezawork Afework Bogale Elisabetta Palagi Alban Lemasson |
| author_facet | Luca Pedruzzi Martina Francesconi Alice Galotti Bezawork Afework Bogale Elisabetta Palagi Alban Lemasson |
| author_sort | Luca Pedruzzi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Recognizing vocal behaviours intended to benefit others is a crucial yet understudied social skill. Primates with rich vocal repertoires and complex societies are excellent models to track the evolution of such capacity. Here, we exposed wild geladas (Theropithecus gelada) to vocal exchanges between unfamiliar female victim screams and male affiliative calls. The stimuli were arranged in sequences either simulating vocal affiliation towards victims (scream-affiliative call) or violating such order (affiliative call-scream), with varying emotional arousal conveyed by the affiliative call type. Measuring gazing activity towards the loudspeaker and the interruptions of feeding, we show that monkeys were sensitive to the sequential order in vocal exchanges as well as to the emotional arousal conveyed by affiliative calls. Our field study suggests a prosocial use of vocalizations in wild monkeys and reveals that foundational cognitive elements for processing vocal exchanges as meaningful third-party interactions may have existed in our common ancestors with monkeys. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-bea050c8dacb4eb69a2171652144c91a |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj-art-bea050c8dacb4eb69a2171652144c91a2025-08-20T01:54:19ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01205e032329510.1371/journal.pone.0323295Wild gelada monkeys detect emotional and prosocial cues in vocal exchanges during aggression.Luca PedruzziMartina FrancesconiAlice GalottiBezawork Afework BogaleElisabetta PalagiAlban LemassonRecognizing vocal behaviours intended to benefit others is a crucial yet understudied social skill. Primates with rich vocal repertoires and complex societies are excellent models to track the evolution of such capacity. Here, we exposed wild geladas (Theropithecus gelada) to vocal exchanges between unfamiliar female victim screams and male affiliative calls. The stimuli were arranged in sequences either simulating vocal affiliation towards victims (scream-affiliative call) or violating such order (affiliative call-scream), with varying emotional arousal conveyed by the affiliative call type. Measuring gazing activity towards the loudspeaker and the interruptions of feeding, we show that monkeys were sensitive to the sequential order in vocal exchanges as well as to the emotional arousal conveyed by affiliative calls. Our field study suggests a prosocial use of vocalizations in wild monkeys and reveals that foundational cognitive elements for processing vocal exchanges as meaningful third-party interactions may have existed in our common ancestors with monkeys.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0323295 |
| spellingShingle | Luca Pedruzzi Martina Francesconi Alice Galotti Bezawork Afework Bogale Elisabetta Palagi Alban Lemasson Wild gelada monkeys detect emotional and prosocial cues in vocal exchanges during aggression. PLoS ONE |
| title | Wild gelada monkeys detect emotional and prosocial cues in vocal exchanges during aggression. |
| title_full | Wild gelada monkeys detect emotional and prosocial cues in vocal exchanges during aggression. |
| title_fullStr | Wild gelada monkeys detect emotional and prosocial cues in vocal exchanges during aggression. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Wild gelada monkeys detect emotional and prosocial cues in vocal exchanges during aggression. |
| title_short | Wild gelada monkeys detect emotional and prosocial cues in vocal exchanges during aggression. |
| title_sort | wild gelada monkeys detect emotional and prosocial cues in vocal exchanges during aggression |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0323295 |
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