The observation of American researchers has unveiled that marmoset monkeys, in similar manners to humans chat, wait for turns to talk.
The study shows that the monkeys take turns to call out and waited some seconds before responding and even can keep a conversation going for up to half an hour.
The monitored animals not only do not speak over or interrupt each other, but they are very friendly with each other and use vocal sounds to communicate, according to the report published in the journal Current Biology.
"We were surprised by how reliably the marmoset monkeys exchanged their vocalizations in a cooperative manner, particularly since in most cases they were doing so with individuals that they were not pair-bonded with," said one of the researchers Asif Ghazanfar of Princeton University.
"This makes what we found much more similar to human conversations and very different from the coordinated calling of animals such as birds, frogs, or crickets, which is linked to mating or territorial defense," he added.
To monitor the marmosets, they were placed in opposite corners of a room in such a way the animals could not see each other but only hear their calls.
Researchers observed that the monkeys did not call out at the same time, but each waited for about 5 seconds after the other person had finished calling to respond.
The experts believe that the marmosets etiquette in conversation is rare among animals trait while most of them call in concert.
They say the monkeys polite conversations also set them apart from chimps and other great apes which not only do not take turns when they vocalize, they do not vocalize much at all.
The researchers also suggest that the study can shed light on human disorders such as autism in which the patients are involved in problems to hold a conversation.
"We are currently exploring how very early life experiences in marmosets-including those in the womb and through to parent-infant vocal interactions-can illuminate what goes awry in human communication disorders," Ghazanfar stated.
Poster Comment:
Comment left at source: Obviously the amerikans could learn a lot about manners and etiquette from many other species, maybe they could even learn how to get along with the rest of the planets inhabitants instead of looking for more ways to slaughter them.