# Communication Development in Young Vervet Monkeys in a Comparative Perspective

Mawa Dafreville, Charlotte Canteloup, Erica van de Waal

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Mawa Dafreville, Charlotte Canteloup, Erica van de Waal. Communication Development in Young Vervet Monkeys in a Comparative Perspective. African Primatological Society Congress, Sep 2024, Potchefstroom, South Africa. hal-04757636

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https://hal.science/hal-04757636v1

Submitted on 29 Oct 2024

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# Communication Development in Young Vervet Monkeys in a Comparative Perspective

Mawa Dafreville*<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="2" />, Charlotte Canteloup<fnref n="2" />,<fnref n="3" />, Erica van de Waal<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="4" />

**Contact:** mawa.dafreville@unil.ch

*Evo-devo* hypotheses suggest that vocal control may have appeared in the human lineage to attract and maintain parental attention. In a comparative perspective, this project aimed at questioning how the young vervet monkeys use and develop their communicative signals specifically in the context of attention breakdowns (i.e., when the recipient stops looking at/touching/nursing the young signaller). To this end, a video data collection of 4-to-36-months-old wild juvenile vervet monkeys (*Chlorocebus pygerythrus*; N=18) belonging to two different groups is currently in progress at the INKAWU Vervet Project, in the Mawana Game Reserve in South Africa. The data collection has started in March 2024 and will extend to October 2024. Also, for considering the evolution of the socialisation of the focal juvenile within their corresponding social group, three kinds of complementary coding are conducted: (i) a scan of spatial proximity network before each 10-minutes focal video, (ii) a scan of activity budget and (iii) a focal sampling of signals produced by the focal juvenile indexed according to their modality of perception (i.e., *audible* signals such as contact calls; *tactile* gestures such as muzzle contacts; *silent-visual* signals such as head bob) assigned to the recipient attention state and response (e.g., visual attention, physical distance). For now, regarding our pilot data collection of vervet monkeys on-site, (i) their communication seems more gestural and less vocal than expected, (ii) the youngest infants (still in weaning process) seem to interact with more non-maternal partners than expected and may show a greater maternal distance than expected (in comparison with other species) and (iii) the groups seem to show differences in social dynamics surrounding the focal juveniles. Finally, regarding previous studies conducted on human infants and juvenile chimpanzees, our findings will be discussed within an *evo-devo* framework related to the evolution of communication in the primate lineage.

**Preference:** Oral presentation

**Sub-themes:** Behaviour, cognition

<footnote n="1">¹Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Switzerland</footnote>

<footnote n="2">²Laboratory of Cognitive and Adaptive Neurosciences, CNRS, UMR 7364, University of Strasbourg, France</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³Primate Center of Strasbourg University, France</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴Inkawu Vervet Project, Mawana Game Reserve, Swart Mfolozi, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa</footnote>