Do Actions Speak Louder than Words? Communicative Frequencies and Multimodality in Ring-Tailed Lemurs (Lemur catta)
Abstract
The study of multimodal communication in primatology has increased only recently. At present, there are no on-going investigations of multimodal communication in ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta), despite the body of research on this species. I investigated how different modes of L. catta inter-individual multimodal communication are socially coordinated and integrated by examining frequencies of occurrence within four potential biological and social factors: age, troop affiliation, sex, and dominance rank. Research was conducted over four months at the Duke Lemur Center, Durham, NC, on 14 individuals from three separate troops of captive, free-ranging L. catta. Results demonstrate communicative variation in unimodal, but not multimodal, signals correlating to sex and rank in this species. Dominant females appear to utilise visual signal components more frequently than males, while males rely more on auditory means of communicating, consistent with troop spatial organization. This research provides a baseline for future investigations into primate multimodal communication.