Colobus Trust

Category: Blogroll | Date: Oct 07 2008 | By: colobus

There was an interesting event yesterday morning in our garden, which showed how well developed communication among monkeys really is. It was fascinating for many of us who witnessed it as we waited for our morning meeting to start.

It all started peacefully with our resident troops of Colobus and Sykes Monkeys scattered around our car park. Monkeys of all ages were enjoying the cool of the morning. Some were busy grooming each other; others once again found amusement in my old Landrover’s wing mirrors, while several Colobus and Sykes were down on the ground around one of our waterstations, whilst the young of both species bounced around playing together.

Before we noticed it a stray dog was spotted by Mzee, alpha male of the local Colobus troop. He kicked up a right fuss, calling loud and proud. The terrestrial threat warning call of a Colobus is hard to explain, something like a revving motor crossed with a croaking. The Estes Behavioural Guide records it as a “rurr”. So, off he went and the rest of the troop joined in as the youngsters shot up the nearest tree. What was interesting though, was that the Sykes also responded by running up the nearest tree and joined in with their own “pyow” calls. This spread through out all monkeys in our garden and after a couple of seconds even our caged Vervet Monkey joined in.

For about three minutes this went on as we tried to work out why they were calling. Eventually we spotted the dog, which fled and the monkeys quietened down. This understanding of another species “language” has been recorded before in similar circumstances but was none the less very interesting for us all to see. Just one of the many things that fascinates us about these wonderful creatures!

Gwili