zannah is sending us more news, so I asked her if she could tell us a little about herself...
' im in the Psychology dept at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, part of the Scottish Primate Research Group. Im studying vocal communication in bonobos, and of course its relationship to social cognition. Im taking a psychological approach to vocal communication, thus i guess, examining the means that bonobos use vocalisations as behavioural tools to navigate their social worlds. There is very little research on vocal communication in bonobos, which provides an exciting but somewhat scary opportunity for me to explore! Some of my topics include the vocal sequences they produce during feeding ( evidence of kind of proto-language) as well as those during sex. Sex as we know has a very important social significance in bonobos, and so im examining how this translates into the associated vocalisations. Other primates only produce copulation calls during reproductive mating, but of bonobos produce these calls in purley social contexts.... it appears to be rank and audience related.... '
