Audience sensitivity in chimpanzee display pant hoots

Citation

Soldati A, Fedurek P, Dezecache G, Call J & Zuberbühler K (2022) Audience sensitivity in chimpanzee display pant hoots. Animal Behaviour, 190, pp. 23-40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.05.010

Abstract
Audience effects are key in studies of animal social cognition and are typically investigated during directed social interactions. Male chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, regularly perform aggressive displays in the presence of others, often targeting a specific group member, and combine this agonistic behaviour with acoustic signals. Here, we were interested in whether the production and structure of pant hoots, a long-distance signal, were influenced by audience composition (i.e. presence and absence of specific individuals). We investigated pant hoots produced during displays by adult and subadult males of Budongo Forest, Uganda. We found that males overall called more often when their preferred social partners and females were absent from the party, as well as when more dominant males were present. We then separately analysed the four phases of pant hoots, introduction, build-up, climax and let-down, and found that audience composition and social context could often explain the presence or absence of each phase. In addition, displays were often accompanied by drumming, especially by older males and when male audiences were small. Our study adds to the growing body of literature on audience effects and other social factors and shows their impact on the structure of a sophisticated vocal sequence, which enhances the communicative capacity in a species with limited vocal control.

Keywords
acoustic signal; audience effect; display; Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii; vocal communication

Journal
Animal Behaviour: Volume 190

People

Dr Pawel Fedurek

Lecturer in Psychology, Psychology