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Study

Monkey responses to three different alarm calls: evidence of predator classification and semantic communication

Seyfarth, Robert M.; Cheney, Dorothy L.; Marler, Peter

Science, 1980

Peer-reviewedfield experimentwild

What they did

Recorded vervet monkey alarm calls for leopards, eagles and snakes were played back to free-ranging groups in the absence of any predator, and the monkeys’ responses were filmed and scored.

Studied in
Chlorocebus pygerythrus
Sample size
free-ranging vervet groups in Amboseli, Kenya

What they found

Each call produced the escape response appropriate to its predator: monkeys ran into trees for the leopard call, looked up and took cover for the eagle call, and looked down at the ground for the snake call — with no predator present.

What it means

The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.

How the authors put it

Vervet alarm calls function referentially: they designate classes of predator rather than merely conveying alarm.

How NatureHQ reads it

The foundational result in animal communication, and the reason the field distinguishes referential signals from expressions of arousal. Because no predator was present, the response can only have come from the call itself. It is worth being careful about what follows: a signal that reliably designates a category is not a word, and the monkeys are not shown to intend to inform anyone.

Limitations

  • Playback removes context that would normally accompany a real alarm.
  • Referential function is inferred from the response, not from anything measured in the caller.
  • Whether callers intend to inform others is not addressed by the design.

What this study is used for on NatureHQ

One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.

Finding the paper

Published by: American Association for the Advancement of SciencePublished in Science or Science Advances (AAAS).

doi.org/10.1126/science.7433999

This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref and OpenAlex on 2026-08-11.

NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-09.