Analisi acustica del repertorio vocale di Cercopithecus mitis albogularis

Language is considered a characteristic human trait, but since decades researchers are trying to understand whether this faculty evolved from a co-opting of behavioral and neural pre-linguistic mechanisms or in an entirely separate manner. Therefore, in the context of understanding the process of the evolution of the communication signals, we can perform primate vocal emissions to figure out the complexity of their vocal repertoire as the first step towards further insights. The work proposed in my thesis is focused on the quantitative investigation of the vocal behavior of Cercopithecus mitis albogularis. I recorded more than 3,500 vocalizations in the natural range of this species, in South Africa. After identifying some categories through the study of the acoustic structures, we proceeded to use a cluster analysis that indicated the presence of discrete categories. This quantitative approach has never been used for this species before and is critical for the development of further studies on the context specificity of the particular call types.