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Age Related Decline In Female Lar Gibbon Great Call Performance Suggests That Call Features Correlate With Physical Condition, Thomas A. Terleph, S. Malaivijitnond, Ulrich H. Reichard

Biology Faculty Publications

Background

White-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar) are small Asian apes known for living in stable territories and producing loud, elaborate vocalizations (songs), often in well-coordinated male/female duets. The female great call, the most conspicuous phrase of the repertoire, has been hypothesized to function in intra-sexual territorial defense. We therefore predicted that characteristics of the great call would correlate with a caller’s physical condition, and thus might honestly reflect resource holding potential (RHP). Because measurement of RHP is virtually impossible for wild animals, we used age as a proxy, hypothesizing that great call climaxes are difficult to produce and maintain …