How do primates communicte

With animals whose structure, psychology, and social organization are as complex as that of primates, the obstacles to a complete understanding as social communication are great.

I have found four ways of communication particularly important. Those being visual, vocal, tactile and olfactory communication, In my following discussion I will try to explain those four communication signals giving examples of how primates make use of them and of what importance different species.

Generally visual communication is used to alert e.g. danger; attack, pacify, grooming, inviting to mount, co-ordination of group movement and care of the young.

Monkeys, apes and humans share a common repertoire of facial expressions that differ mainly in their intensity or frequency. By contrast, the colour and patterns of faces often differ greatly from species to species.

Generally, colour signals exist to enhance facial expressions such as for example yawning that in mandrills are a sign of threat.

In lemurs, many New and Old World monkeys, in gorillas and orang-utans it is not facial

The most widespread and characteristic behaviour pattern involving tactile stimulation by the hand is grooming and is probably the most important means of tactile communication among apes and Old World monkeys.

Tactile sense plays a major role in humans and as humans have poorly developed olfactory sense it has been replaced by a highly developed tactile sense. It plays a crucial role in courtship behaviour and in the relationships between parent and child. Humans show affection by hugging and kissing or controversy they communicate aggression and anger by fighting and hurting on another.

Some topics in this essay:
Kummer1971 Yawning, , Irven DeVore, Primate Behaviour, Martin Pilbeam, Olfactory Communication, world monkeys, facial expressions, visual communication, olfactory communication, tactile communication, gorillas orang-utans, monkeys apes, colour signals, Jones Martin, jones martin pilbeam, visual vocal, vocal tactile, martin pilbeam 1992, monkeys apes humans, odour lifting tail, visual vocal tactile,