Socially meaningful vocal plasticity in adult Campbell's monkeys (Cercopithecus campbelli)

Campbell's monkeys (Cercopithecus campbelli) frequently exchange vocalizations, the combined-harmonic calls, with individuals responding to one another's calls. Previous work has shown that these calls can be grouped into several structural variants. Adult females differ in their variant repertoires, which may change during their adult life, particularly after changes in the group composition. Playback of females' currently produced variants triggered vocal responses from other group members, whereas the same females' former, no longer used variants and those of stranger females never did. In contrast, former variants caused long-term cessation of vocal behavior, whereas stranger variants had no effect. Data showed that monkeys were able to distinguish between the different types of variants, indicating that these calls form part of a long-term social memory.