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Inheritance of stereotyped gibbon calls

Nature volume 312, pages 634–636 (1984)Cite this article

Abstract

Little is known about how vocal patterns develop in non-human primates, mainly because suitable controlled experiments are difficult to carry out on these animals1. Results of isolation experiments2–4 and observations of interspecific hybrids1,5 suggest no greater role for vocal learning than exists in many other vertebrates6–9, and less than has been found in birds10–13. We have now studied vocal patterns of hybrids between white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar) and pileated gibbons (Hylobates pileatus) in natural mixed-species groups, in a zone of interspecies contact in central Thailand, and in some captive mixed-species groups. We find that in female hybrids, the patterns of the loud and stereotyped ‘great-calls’ show no evidence of learning from parents, and appear to be under strong genetic control. Daughters maturing in groups with genetically unlike parents develop great-calls unlike those of their mothers, even though these calls develop only while the daughters sing simultaneously with their mothers.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Rama VI Road, Bangkok, 10400, Thailand

    W. Y. Brockelman

  2. Arbeitsgruppe Funktionelle Morphologie, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, MA 0/44, Postfach 102148, D-4630, Bochum, 1, FRG

    D. Schilling

Authors
  1. W. Y. Brockelman
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  2. D. Schilling
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Brockelman, W., Schilling, D. Inheritance of stereotyped gibbon calls. Nature 312, 634–636 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/312634a0

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