Acoustic Analysis and Contextual Description of Food-Associated Calls in White-Faced Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus capucinus)

Abstract

Since early studies of primates that identified vocalizations that attracted others to a food source, the assumed function of food-associated calls has been to inform others of the presence of food. The label food-associated calls and its implied function has led to a focus in research on many species of the costs/benefits for the signaler and recipient of informing others about the presence of food; however, without clearly identifying the calls contextually or acoustically, it is unclear if calls are specific to a feeding context and thus whether calls provide specific information about the presence of food. If calls occur exclusively in the context of feeding, information about individual identity would allow listeners to decide whether or not to approach a calling individual. I conducted acoustic and contextual analyses on food-associated calls in white-faced capuchins. I identified the calls as distinct vocalizations that occur almost exclusively in a feeding context. Discriminant function analyses demonstrate that information about caller sex and identity are encoded in the calls. Therefore, there is the potential for individuals to use acoustic information when responding to food-associated calls; however, playback experiments are necessary to test more explicitly the hypothesis that recipients are able to recognize the calls of specific individuals.