Function of loud calls in wild bonobos.

Abstract

Under the social origins hypothesis, human language is thought to have evolved within the framework of non-human primate social contexts and relationships. Our two closest relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, however, have very different social relationships and this may be reflected in their use of loud calls. Much of loud calling in the male-bonded and aggressive chimpanzee functions for male alliance formation and intercommunity aggression. Bonobos, however, are female bonded and less aggressive and little is known on the use and function of their loud calls. Data on frequencies, context, and locations of vocalizations were collected for wild bonobos, Pan paniscus, at the Lomako Forest study site in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1983 to 2009. Both males and females participated in loud calls used for inter-party communication. Calling and response rates by both males and females were higher during party fusion than party fission and were common at evening nesting. The distribution of loud calls within the community range of loud calls was not random with males calling significantly more towards the periphery of the range and females calling significantly more in central areas. Calling and party fission were common at food patches. Responses were more frequent for female calls than for male calls. Calling, followed by fusion, was more frequent when a small party called from a large patch. We conclude that bonobo females and males loud calls can function in inter-party communication to call others to large food patches. Females call to attract potential allies and males call to attract potential mates. Our results support the social hypothesis of the origin of language because differences in the function and use of loud calls reflect the differing social systems of chimpanzees and bonobos. Bonobo loud calls are important for female communication and function in party coordination and, unlike chimpanzees, are less important in male cooperative aggression.