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Acoustical Aspects of the Propagation of Long Calls of Wild Leontopithecus rosalia

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Abstract

Golden lion tamarins emit conspicuous and complex long calls. Little is known about the propagation distance of the calls, and the knowledge is important to understand the function of long calls. The high-frequency spectrum of the calls renders them susceptible to substantial degradation inside forest habitats. We investigated 1) the propagation distance of the long call and if the height from the ground affects the degree of degradation and 2) whether long-call acoustic variation affects the propagation distance. We conducted a playback study of 7 2-phrase long calls recorded at different distances (20, 40, 80, 120 m) and heights above ground (2 m and 7.5 m) in 3 transects of Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We quantified the degradation by measuring differences in the number of syllables and frequency measures of the calls at each distance. Degradation became significant at 80 m; the calls degraded below background noise at 120 m. The degradation of syllables was lower for recordings at 7.5 m above ground. The frequency spectra of the calls influenced significantly the propagation distance of the call. Because of the short propagation distance of long calls relative to territory size, we hypothesize that long calls may be adapted to avoiding ambient noise and that they evolved first for intragroup communication and then for territorial defense.

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Acknowledgments

We greatly appreciate the support of Dr. Paula Procópio de Oliveira and her team with fieldwork, maps, subject capture and marking, and selection of study individuals. We thank Dr. Marcelo Trinidade Nascimento for suggesting methods for measuring vegetation cover, Dr. Leandro Rabello Monteiro for the statistical analysis, and Dr. Torben Dabelsteen for all his useful comments on the manuscript. The assistants Ana Paula S. Amorim, Elmo Siqueira Carvalho, Mauricio Pacheco, and Euzenil Souza Cordeiro helped during the field experiments. The Golden Lion Tamarin Association, IBAMA, and the Laboratório de Ciências Ambientais/UENF provided logistic support for the project. Grants from the Lion Tamarins of Brazil Fund, Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation, FAPERJ, CNPq, and Fundo Nacional do Meio Ambiente funded the project. Fellowships from CAPES and FENORTE/UENF funded the work of Vera Sabatini.

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  1. Laboratório de Ciências Ambientais, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense, Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ, 28013-602, Brazil

    Vera Sabatini & Carlos R. Ruiz-Miranda

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  1. Vera Sabatini
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  2. Carlos R. Ruiz-Miranda
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Correspondence to Carlos R. Ruiz-Miranda.

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Sabatini, V., Ruiz-Miranda, C.R. Acoustical Aspects of the Propagation of Long Calls of Wild Leontopithecus rosalia . Int J Primatol 29, 207–223 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-008-9240-2

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