THE FUNCTION AND MECHANISMS UNDERLYING BABOON CONTACT BARKS

Free-ranging baboons, Papio cynocephalus ursinus, in the Okavango Delt a, Botswana, often give loud 'contact' barks when separated from other group members. Although these calls appear to function to maintain co ntact between widely dispersed animals, individuals apparently do not give contact barks with the intent of informing others of their locati on. Females are more likely to give a contact bark in the 5 min after they themselves have called than in the 5 min after another female has called. Playback experiments suggest that females primarily 'answer' their close relatives' contact barks when they themselves are separate d from other females or at the end of the group progression. (C) 1996 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour