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Functional flexibility in wild bonobo vocal behaviour

Clay, Zanna; Archbold, Jahmaira; Zuberbühler, Klaus

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Authors

Jahmaira Archbold

Klaus Zuberbühler



Abstract

A shared principle in the evolution of language and the development of speech is the emergence of functional flexibility, the capacity of vocal signals to express a range of emotional states independently of context and biological function. Functional flexibility has recently been demonstrated in the vocalisations of pre-linguistic human infants, which has been contrasted to the functionally fixed vocal behaviour of non-human primates. Here, we revisited the presumed chasm in functional flexibility between human and non-human primate vocal behaviour, with a study on our closest living primate relatives, the bonobo (Pan paniscus). We found that wild bonobos use a specific call type (the “peep”) across a range of contexts that cover the full valence range (positive-neutral-negative) in much of their daily activities, including feeding, travel, rest, aggression, alarm, nesting and grooming. Peeps were produced in functionally flexible ways in some contexts, but not others. Crucially, calls did not vary acoustically between neutral and positive contexts, suggesting that recipients take pragmatic information into account to make inferences about call meaning. In comparison, peeps during negative contexts were acoustically distinct. Our data suggest that the capacity for functional flexibility has evolutionary roots that predate the evolution of human speech. We interpret this evidence as an example of an evolutionary early transition away from fixed vocal signalling towards functional flexibility.

Citation

Clay, Z., Archbold, J., & Zuberbühler, K. (2015). Functional flexibility in wild bonobo vocal behaviour. PeerJ – the Journal of Life & Environmental Sciences, 3, Article e1124. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1124

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 3, 2015
Online Publication Date Aug 4, 2015
Publication Date Aug 4, 2015
Deposit Date Apr 19, 2017
Publicly Available Date Apr 20, 2017
Journal PeerJ
Electronic ISSN 2167-8359
Publisher PeerJ
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 3
Article Number e1124
DOI https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1124
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1360356

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