Dominance style is a key predictor of vocal use and evolution across nonhuman primates.

Eithne Kavanagh,Claudia Wilke,Kirsty E Graham,Barbora Kuběnová,Mary S M Pavelka,Erica Van De Waal,Zarin Machanda,Stuart Semple,Louise R Peckre,Valeria Torti,Karim Ouattara,Barbara Fruth,Megan Petersdorf,Camille Coye,Bonaventura Majolo,Daniela Hedwig,Anna Zanoli,Felix O Angwela,Raffaella Ventura,Melissa Emery Thompson,Samantha Green,David Macgregor Inglis,Jérôme Micheletta,Julia Ostner,Valérie A M Schoof,Marco Gamba,Maryjka B Blaszczyk,Morgan L Gustison,Alban Lemasson,Anna H Weyher,Adriano R Lameira,Thore J Bergman,Fredy Quintero,Claudia Fichtel,Klaus Zuberbühler,Sophie Marshall,Sally E Street,Alejandro Estrada,Cristina Giacoma,Lindsey Hagberg,Isaac Schamberg,Cyril C Grueter,Michelle Brown,Christopher Young,Shreejata Gupta,Chloe Chen-Kraus,Peter M Kappeler,Laura M Bolt,Daria Valente,Oliver Schülke,Katharine M Jack,Hugh Notman,Martha M Robbins,Roberta Salmi,Joan B Silk,Stéphanie Mercier ,Margarita Briseño‐Jaramillo ,J Roberto Sosa‐López ,Ivan Norscia ,Martin N Muller ,Andrew J J Macintosh ,Richard W Wrangham ,Gillian King‐Bailey ,Gabriel Ramos‐Fernández ,Katie E Slocombe

doi:10.1098/rsos.210873

Abstract

Animal communication has long been thought to be subject to pressures and constraints associated with social relationships. However, our understanding of how the nature and quality of social relationships relates to the use and evolution of communication is limited by a lack of directly comparable methods across multiple levels of analysis. Here, we analysed observational data from 111 wild groups belonging to 26 non-human primate species, to test how vocal communication relates to dominance style (the strictness with which a dominance hierarchy is enforced, ranging from ‘despotic’ to ‘tolerant’). At the individual-level, we found that dominant individuals who were more tolerant vocalized at a higher rate than their despotic counterparts. This indicates that tolerance within a relationship may place pressure on the dominant partner to communicate more during social interactions. At the species-level, however, despotic species exhibited a larger repertoire of hierarchy-related vocalizations than their tolerant counterparts. Findings suggest primate signals are used and evolve in tandem with the nature of interactions that characterize individuals' social relationships.

Highlights

In the quest to understand the evolution of human and non-human animal behaviour, a ‘multiple levels of analysis’ approach has often been advocated [1]
We analysed observational data from 111 wild groups belonging to 26 non-human primate species, to test how vocal communication relates to dominance style
In support of our prediction that dominant individuals who are more tolerant of subordinate partners vocalize more frequently than their despotic counterparts, we found that individuals with higher frequency

Summary

Introduction

In the quest to understand the evolution of human and non-human animal behaviour, a ‘multiple levels of analysis’ approach has often been advocated [1]. Such an approach requires analyses to span different levels of a system (e.g. individual, family, group, species), in practice, most studies focus on a single level of analysis (e.g. variation between individuals or across species). We conducted a multiple-levels-of-analysis study with a focus on a measure that is related to the nature rather than the number of social relationships: dominance style

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Conclusion