Old world monkey vocalizations: adaptation to the local habitat?

Distributional Limits and Melanism in the South-West of the Range of the Crowned Sifaka (Propithecus coronatus), Madagascar

“…Some studies have found support for this hypothesis (Ryan and Brennowitz 1985;Ey et al 2009), whereas others have not (Brown et al 1995;Daniel and Blumstein 1998). Since the habitat at both sample locations for this study is characterized by dry deciduous forest, it is unlikely that ecological factors will explain diversification of the Tchi-fak calls between the two sifaka populations.…”

“…On the one hand, speciesspecific signals can be considered a result of sexual selection in which they function as a premating isolation mechanism (Mayr 1963;Nevo et al 1987). On the other hand, speciesspecific vocalizations can be a result of natural selection through adaptations of the acoustic structure of calls according to habitat properties in order to optimize their transmission (Morton 1975;Ryan et al 1990;Brown et al 1995). In particular, acoustic signals are considered to be important parameters in species-level taxonomic analysis, ranging from crickets, anurans and birds to mammals, including primates (Macedonia and Stanger 1994;Ryan and Rand 1999;Gray and Cade 2000;Grant and Grant 2006;Cap et al 2008).…”

“…They travel over long distances and have been suggested to transmit information pertaining to inter-group spacing and territorial behavior (Marler 1967;Waser 1982;Mitani 1985;Brown et al 1995). They typically have a species-specific acoustic structure and have therefore been used to infer phylogenetic relationships (Oates and Trocco 1983;Macedonia and Stanger 1994;Nietsch and Kopp 1998;Zimmermann et al 2000;Konrad and Geissmann 2006;Mendez-Cardenas et al 2008;Merker et al 2009;Thin et al 2010).…”

Spectral characteristics of intense mew calls in cat species of the genus Felis (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae)

“…Morton 1975;Waser and Waser 1977;Wallschläger 1981Wallschläger , 1985Brown and Waser 1988;Wiley 1991;Brown and Gomez 1992;Brown et al 1995;Daniel and Blumstein 1998;Slabbekoorn and Smith 2002;Ryan and Kime 2003;Saunders and Slotow 2004;Blumstein and Turner 2005;Boncoraglio and Saino 2007). Data on diverse vertebrate taxa support this hypothesis (Morton 1975;Gish and Morton 1981;Wallschläger 1980Wallschläger , 1982Wallschläger , 1985Wallschläger and Nikolskij 1985;Masters 1991;Saunders and Slotow 2004;Slabbekoorn 2004;Seddon 2005;Nicholls and Goldizen 2006;Tubaro and Lijtmaer 2006), while in other taxa it is only supported weakly (Blumstein and Turner 2005;Boncoraglio and Saino 2007) or is not supported (Daniel and Blumstein 1998;Kime et al 2000;Saunders and Slotow 2004).…”

“…Mechanisms that are suggested in the literature to have probably also played a role in the adaptive modification of acoustic call parameters during evolution are, among others: (1) adaptive selection for the composition and structure of the frequency spectrum in the calls of a species that yield the maximum communication distance in its habitat (Waser and Waser 1977;Brown 1989;Larom et al 1997;Mitani and Stuht 1998;Huang et al 2002); (2) adaptive matching of a species' vocalization structures to acoustic properties of its habitat to produce calls that are distorted/ degraded minimally over their propagation range in its habitat (Richards and Wiley 1980;Wiley and Richards 1982;Brown et al 1995;Brown andHandford 1996, 2000). We tested the ''frequency scaling rule'' formulated by Fletcher (2004Fletcher ( , 2007 with our data on F0m and mDFr of intense mew calls of the genus Felis used in long-distance communication, and used the results to explore hypothesis (1).…”