Whether lovers of Youtse, or Yodel, console themselves, the monkeys will always be unbeatable for this form of vocalizations thanks to a peculiarity of their larynx, explained researchers in a study Thursday.
When the monkeys cries, or Swiss singers embark on a Yodel, they suddenly pass from one sound frequency to another. Unlike opera singers, for example, who train to go from one octave to another gradually.
Far from the prowess of Tarzan, who had nothing to envy to his Primate companions, the Yodleurs managed to suddenly jump from an octave to a face, down or the top.
The monkeys can make a leap up to three and a half octaves, according to the study published in the British journal “Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B”. A “tip” specific to their larynx will always make them unbeatable, explained its main author, Jacob Dunn, from the British University Anglia Ruskin.
Humans and monkeys produce sounds thanks to the vibrations of the vocal cords of their larynx. But where the former have a single pair of such strings, the second count two pairs, which allow them to cover a larger range of sounds. And the magnitude of this range provides these eminently social species with a more complex way of communicating with each other.
Man has a more rational larynx
Humans have apparently lost this second pair of vocal cords during evolution. And with it, the hope of measuring yourself with the monkeys in a Yodel competition. But they won a more “rational” larynx there, according to Jacob Dunn, allowing to finely modulate sounds and produce language.
“If you associate a human brain with a primate larynx”, it will have the greatest difficulty in formulating words capable of crossing as many vocal cords, not to mention the air pockets of the laryngeal bags, the scientist explains.
The researchers conducted their study using sensors on the neck of monkeys of the Bolivian reserve La Senda Verde Wildlife Sanctuary. And were thus able to observe what was happening in the larynx of howlers, brown capuchins, Bolivian monkey and Peruvian monkey. The latter seizing the title of champion of Yodel, with vocal leaps covering four octaves. Unbeatable.
