Male-Specific Use of the Purr in the Ring-Tailed Lemur <b><i>(Lemur catta)</i></b>

Abstract

In mammals, purring has been described in mostly affiliative contexts. In the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta), both males and females purr, but only males were observed purring in agonistic contexts. In order to determine whether male ring-tailed lemurs purr as aggressive displays during intrasexual agonistic encounters, 480 h of focal data were collected on 25 adult males from Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve, Madagascar, from March to July 2010. The male purring rate increased during periods of male-male agonism when compared to times without intrasexual agonism, and the purring rate was positively correlated with male dominance rank. However, the purring rate was not significantly higher during winning agonistic interactions when compared with losing encounters. My results indicate that the male ring-tailed lemur purr is used most frequently as an agonistic vocalization in male-male encounters, in addition to being used less frequently in other social contexts, including during tail-waving at females, resting, scent-marking, feeding and copulation. Dominant males have higher purring rates across social situations, suggesting that the purring rate may be driven by intrinsic male qualities rather than functioning as a meaningful signal in each disparate social context. Male purring in intrasexual agonistic encounters can be added to previously described social contexts for ring-tailed lemur purring.

Antipredator Vocalization Usage in the Male Ring-Tailed Lemur (Lemur catta)

“…Previous support for this hypothesis had been found in vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) and tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) [Cheney and Seyfarth, 1985;van Schaik and van Noordwijk, 1989]. For some L. catta vocalizations, the vocalization rate is known to be correlated with individual male dominance rank [Bolt, 2013c[Bolt, , 2014, but alarm calls do not fit this trend. In contrast to primate species such as C. pygerythrus and C. apella , in which dominant males are thought to derive fitness benefits from calling at increased rates [Cheney and Seyfarth, 1985;van Schaik and van Noordwijk, 1989], dominant male L. catta may not alarm-call at higher rates because they may not receive any benefits from doing so.…”

Contact calling behaviour in the male ring‐tailed lemur (Lemur catta)

“…Although one‐zero sampling has received criticism (e.g., Altmann, ), this sampling method has also been empirically shown to be an effective technique for collecting data on primate behavioural rates (Leger, ; Rhine & Linville, ; Sarfaty, Margulis, & Atsalis, ; Suen & Ary, ), and has been used in other studies on primate vocalisations (e.g., Bolt, ,c, ; Bolt et al., ; Clarke, Reichard, & Zuberbühler, ; Suzuki & Sugiura, ). We used one‐zero sampling because Bernstein () recommended that one‐zero scoring should be used when behavioural acts are clustered and the bout, rather than each act, is of interest.…”

“…Behaviour classified as agonistic could be high arousal (e.g., bite/jump away, chase/flee, stalk/cower or attack/withdraw) or low arousal (e.g., displacement/be displaced, or stare/look away) (Gould, ; Parga, , ; Pereira & Kappeler, ). We determined individual male dominance scores from these data following methods described in detail by Bolt (,c, ), using dominance index calculations (Zumpe & Michael, ), which take all aggressive and submissive interactions in each group into account before assigning an individual dominance percentage to each group member based on the relative number of agonistic wins. High dominance percentages correlate with high dominance levels, while low dominance percentages correlate with low dominance levels.…”

“…The individual differences hypothesis predicts that individual male characteristics such as dominance rank and age influence contact calling rate. In the ring‐tailed lemur, high‐ranking males have higher vocalisation rates for calls used in agonistic contexts (Bolt, , ), but not for calls used in intergroup or antipredator contexts (Bolt, ; Bolt, Sauther, Cuozzo, & Antho Youssef, ). The relationship between dominance, age and affiliative call usage has not yet been studied in this species.…”

Why signal softly? The structure, function and evolutionary significance of low-amplitude signals

“…In primates, a group cohesion function has often been ascribed to close calls (e.g., Palombit, 1992), but studies have found evidence supporting additional functions such as reduction of competition within foraging patches (Boinski & Campbell, 1996), facilitation of affiliative social interactions among group members (Cheney, Seyfarth, & Silk, 1995), and mediation of aggressive interactions among males (Bolt, 2014). Meerkats (Suricata suricatta) utilize loud calls as part of a functionally referential alarm call system and to coordinate wholegroup behaviour (Manser, 1998).…”