Learn about why monkeys imitate other species’ accents; and the “dataome,” a new way to think about information. You can vote for Curiosity Daily in the 2021 People's Choice Podcast Awards! Register at https://podcastawards.com, select Curiosity Daily in the categories of Education and Science & Medicine, and then click/tap "save nominations" at the bottom of the page. Voting in other categories is optional. Your vote is greatly appreciated! Monkeys change their "accent" to get along with other species by Steffie Drucker Primates change their “accent” to avoid conflict. (2021). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-05/aru-pct052521.php Grover, N. (2021, May 27). Monkeys adopt “accent” of other species when in shared territory – study. The Guardian; The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/may/27/monkeys-adopt-accent-of-other-species-when-in-shared-territory-study Sobroza, T. V., Gordo, M., Pequeno, P. A. C. L., Dunn, J. C., Spironello, W. R., Rabelo, R. M., & Barnett, A. P. A. (2021). Convergent character displacement in sympatric tamarin calls (Saguinus spp.). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 75(5). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-021-03028-x Additional resources from Caleb Scharf: Pick up "The Ascent of Information: Books, Bits, Genes, Machines, and Life's Unending Algorithm" on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ascent-Information-Machines-Unending-Algorithm/dp/0593087240 Website: http://www.calebscharf.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/caleb_scharf Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Learn about why monkeys imitate other species’ accents; and the “dataome,” a new way to think about information.
You can vote for Curiosity Daily in the 2021 People's Choice Podcast Awards! Register at https://podcastawards.com, select Curiosity Daily in the categories of Education and Science & Medicine, and then click/tap "save nominations" at the bottom of the page. Voting in other categories is optional. Your vote is greatly appreciated!
Monkeys change their "accent" to get along with other species by Steffie Drucker
Additional resources from Caleb Scharf:
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/accent-changing-monkeys-and-the-information-dataome
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn why monkeys imitate other species’ accents. Then, you’ll learn about a new way to think about how humans use information, with author Caleb Scharf.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
When you move somewhere new, you might find yourself adopting the local accent and using local idioms. That makes sense: matching other people’s style of speaking can cut down on miscommunication and conflict. It turns out that monkeys think so, too. Scientists have discovered that certain primates adopt their neighbors’ “accent” to keep the peace in the jungle.
This research focused on two types of squirrel-sized monkeys living in the Amazon rainforest. One species, called the pied tamarin, is critically endangered and keeps to a very specific region of the rainforest. The other species, the red-handed tamarin, is hardier and spread across the Amazon — and that means it sometimes encroaches on the pied tamarins’ turf. The two species compete for the same resources, so things can get ugly when their paths cross.
But sometimes a stern warning can prevent physical violence. Each species has a set of calls for different purposes, like wooing a potential mate or warning a rival they’re too close for comfort. They’re sort of like words or phrases that make up a larger monkey language. The two tamarins have a similar set of calls, but they use slightly different accents. It’s like American English versus British English: They’re the same language, but Americans say “toe-may-toe” and Brits say “toe-mah-toe.”
When similar species take up the same territory, the groups can sometimes change things up to cut down on competition. Often, that change is done to differentiate themselves: they might evolve different wing markings or mating rituals to ensure nobody gets confused. But the opposite can also happen: birds and frogs are known to match their calls to other nearby species to make communication easier. Researchers from Anglia Ruskin University wondered if the same might be true of these overlapping tamarins. After all, the easier it is for someone to understand your warning call, the easier it is for them to obey it.
To find out, they compared recordings of 15 tamarin troops’ calls from three different spots throughout the rainforest: One where they knew the different species lived together and two where they didn't. Sure enough, in the shared region, the red-handed tamarins’ calls sounded a lot more like their neighbors’. The technical term for adopting another species’ accent is “asymmetric call convergence,” and this was the first time scientists found primates doing it!
This is an important step in our understanding of how species interact when they share territory. When animals want to keep the peace, many set themselves apart. But tamarins take a different tack: when you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
Information is kind of like an animal. It evolves, it mutates, and the better it is at surviving, the further it spreads. In a way, information is alive. And today's guest says that's not just a metaphor: humans and information have evolved together in a symbiotic relationship kind of like the bacteria in our guts. One of us couldn't survive without the other. Caleb Scharf is the director of the Columbia Astrobiology Center and the author of the new book, "THE ASCENT OF INFORMATION: Books, Bits, Genes, Machines, and Life's Unending Algorithm." He told us how this idea occurred to him.
[CLIP 5:13]
Information definitely has a dark side. Again, that was Caleb Scharf, the director of the Columbia Astrobiology Center and the author of the new book, "The Ascent of Information: Books, Bits, Genes, Machines, and Life's Unending Algorithm." Caleb will be back tomorrow to explain how the dataome might affect extraterrestrial civilizations.
Let’s recap the main things we learned today
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ASHLEY: The writer for today’s first story was Steffie Drucker.
CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer, who was also an audio editor on today’s episode.
ASHLEY: Our producer and lead audio editor is Cody Gough.
CODY: We’re gonna store some pretty useful information in a new podcast episode for ya, so join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes. It’s a responsible use of the data-ome, after all.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!