How the lemur screams. Scientists have figured out the language of ring-tailed lemurs

The Madagascan name for the ring-tailed lemur is maki.

This animal has a picturesque striped tail with alternating black and white rings, which served as the basis for the name of the species. The fur on the face is colored in a similar way: two black circles around the eyes and one around the mouth, the cheeks and ears are white.

The tail is perfect for allowing the ring-tailed lemur to maintain balance while sitting on a thin branch. It also plays an important role in balancing jumps. IN social behavior the striped tail of lemurs is assigned great importance. When a ring-tailed lemur walks on the ground, it holds its tail vertically for better visibility. With the help of their tail, males carry out so-called “smelly fights”. They lubricate the tail with secretions from the armpits and stick it out towards the opponent. In this way, disputes about ranks in the social hierarchy are resolved and the area is protected against out-groups. Because of the tail, the animal received English name"Ring-tailed lemur" (ring-tailed lemur).

The back is light gray or reddish brown. The ring-tailed lemur received its first name for the sounds it makes when calm (meowing and purring), but when excited, it can squeal loudly and shrilly.

The ring-tailed lemur is diurnal and lives in arid forests in the southwestern part of the island of Madagascar. It lives in groups of 10-20 individuals and marks its territory with secretions from the axillary glands. It also has inguinal glands. It mainly moves on four limbs, only in exceptional cases does it rise on its hind legs.

He loves to sunbathe, throwing back his head and spreading his paws wide to the sides, exposing his white belly to the rays. When in danger, the male lowers his round ears and thumps his tail threateningly. These lemurs take a very interesting pose while sleeping: they hide their heads between their paws and throw their tail over their shoulders. The food consists of fruits, flowers and leaves.

The gestation period is 120-145 days, there are one or two cubs in the litter.
In captivity, with normal maintenance and care, they feel normal and bear offspring. The feed consists of fruits, nuts, milk and briquetted feed.

Compared to other lemurs, the ring-tailed lemur is relatively common. However, the International Union for Conservation of Nature also defines it as endangered, as its population is declining. Currently, the total number of ring-tailed lemurs is estimated at 10,000 - 100,000 individuals. The main threats include destruction of living space and hunting, carried out partly for commercial reasons.

The lemurs' vocabulary includes the words "ptang", "frink", "chiip" and "huuu". Their meaning depends on what eye movements accompany the pronunciation of these words.

Further information provided by G. Shapiro: "Let me summarize the modern interpretation of the language of lemurs, as outlined in the Journal of Irreproducible Research"

frink(adj.) - very attractive, sexy
frink(noun) - operator of the National Geographic channel

Note: The double meaning of the word "frink" stems from the lemurs' misperception of a person with a telephoto lens. For lemurs, the first sign of sexual attractiveness is eye size. Lemurs mistake telephoto lenses for gigantic, and therefore completely irresistible, eyes.

Ptang(verb) - to have sexual relations with a representative of another species. Has a positive value if the other species is also a primate.

Related to the word bestialism (bestialism), when a member of another species is not a primate.

Cheep, cheep, cheep(noun) - a very pleasant sexual experience.

So, let's apply what we've learned and translate the following dialogue between two lemurs:
1st lemur: Ptang frink frink.
2nd lemur: chiip, chiip, chiip.

Translation:
Lemur 1: I heard you had sex with that hot guy from National Geographic.
2nd lemur: Yes! It was cool!

Of course, Shapiro's report cannot be considered the absolute truth, since lemurs are known to use the words "ptang" and "frink" in many other cases, not just to discuss sex. Consequently, the theory has the right to exist, according to which a huge role in understanding the meaning of phrases uttered by a lemur in given time, play the movements of his eyes.

This theory says:
The verbal component of the lemur vocabulary requires physical addition to determine its meaning. In other words, the meaning of the word "frink" changes depending on the lemur's eye movements. If a lemur rolls its eyes, saying “frink,” then this word means one thing, and if it winks with its right eye, then it means something completely different, etc. "Frink" is used for different purposes: as a greeting, as an exclamation of delight, as a means of expressing curiosity, etc. Only lemurs know what this word really means, but they cannot tell us.

flickr / Biodiversity Heritage Library

Primatologists from the University of Toronto Mississauga have discovered a dependence of the vocal communication characteristics of ring-tailed lemurs on the place occupied by the individual in the hierarchy of the group. By studying male lemurs, scientists found that the animals produce sounds resembling purrs and meows to convey information about their location, and low-ranking males can increase the pitch of the sounds emitted, calling out to certain relatives that they prefer. Article published in the magazine Ethology and is available on the electronic library website Wiley Online Library.

Ring-tailed lemurs, or ring-tailed lemurs ( Lemur catta), live on the island of Madagascar. They have the largest vocal communication system among lemurs, with about 22 different sounds. Their vocal signals have been studied many times, but a systematic study on a large sample of animals has not yet been carried out.

The vocal communication system of ring-tailed lemurs includes two sounds that are considered important for maintaining communication between members of the same group: a hmm call and a meow. The authors of the new study analyzed the use of these signals by lemurs to maintain group cohesion and to call a specific conspecific, and also identified differences in the use of vocal signals by lemurs at the top and bottom of the group hierarchy.

Researchers spent five months collecting data on the communication of male ring-tailed lemurs in Madagascar. nature reserve- Beza Mahafali reservation. A total of 31 male vocal communication data were collected. Observations have shown that male lemurs use purr-like sounds and meows to indicate distance to a nearby lemur, with the frequency of purrs increasing when the lemurs are further away.

Meowing

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Moreover, the use of high-frequency rumbling does not depend on factors such as the animal’s place in the hierarchy and the distance to the closest relative, which it prefers. High-frequency meows, on the contrary, are used by low-ranking males to communicate their location to their preferred conspecific. Researchers attribute this to the fact that low-ranking lemurs are more likely than others to be threatened by enemies.

You can read about how, based on the study of vocal communication of primates, scientists are trying to understand the origin of human speech in our material.

Elizaveta Ivtushok

MOSCOW, September 3 – RIA Novosti. The mental development of infants under six months of age is influenced not only by human speech - the sounds made by a lemur are also suitable for this, according to an article published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Scientists know that a baby begins to perceive speech long before he begins to speak. Studies have shown that speech perception stimulates cognitive processes in infants, in particular the formation of categories of objects.

Alissa Ferry from Northwestern University in Evanston (USA) and her colleagues studied the effect on the brain of infants of the sounds that lemurs make. Their experiment involved 36 infants - 12 children each aged 3, 4 and 6 months. Scientists played the sounds made by the lemur to the children. They were then simultaneously presented with a picture of a new object belonging to a familiar category (for example, a new picture of a dinosaur) and a picture of an object belonging to a new category (for example, a picture of a fish).

The researchers found that children aged 3 and 4 months were affected by lemur sounds in the same way as human speech. Children who heard a lemur or a person were equally successful in distinguishing an object of a new category from objects of a class they already knew. However, the sounds of the lemur no longer had such an effect on six-month-old infants, and their further mental development occurred only under the influence of human speech.

"We found that in three- and four-month-old infants, primate (but not human) sounds promoted object categorization, mirroring the effect of human speech, but by six months primate sounds no longer had this effect, and learning remained only related with human language,” Ferry explained.

Together with her colleagues, she came to the conclusion that the problem here was not the acoustic properties of sounds, since human speech, spoken backwards, had no effect on the mental development of children.