Non‐Invasive Techniques: Vocalizations

Non‐invasive research into primate vocal communication has shed light on a number of biological questions, from animal emotions to the origins of human language. Historically, however, this work has relied on focal follows of known individuals, which often prevents researchers from contextualizing sounds in a socioecological framework of spatially distributed callers and receivers. Recently, primatologists have begun to incorporate passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) into their studies, allowing for investigation of primate behavior across large spatiotemporal scales and providing data on cryptic or elusive species. Current applications are revealing cohesive movement patterns in wild, partially habituated chimpanzees in Tanzania, and wildlife activity in response to hunting pressure in Cameroon. Whilst focal follows remain the default method for the study of primate vocal communication, PAM offers researchers and conservationists an increasingly affordable, non‐invasive, and powerful tool to better understand the social role of primate sounds and the threats facing the soundscapes within which we study them.