Animals of Taita, Kenya

Vocalization Analyses of Nocturnal Arboreal Mammals of the Taita Hills, Kenya

Written by

Hanna Rosti PhD

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Article published 14.12.2020 in MDPI journal Diversity

This article describes acoustic communication of Taita tree hyrax (Dendrohyrax), dwarf galago (Paragalago) populations living in Taita Hills and small-eared greater galago (Otolemur garnettii lasiotis) population.

Link to the open access article

This article is written by Hanna Rosti, Jouko Rikkinen, Henry Pihlström, Simon Bearder and Petri Pellikka.

Main findings:

  1. Tree hyraxes from Taita Hills most likely belong to previously undescribed species. This is based on call named ‘strangled thwack’ that is not heard from other tree hyrax species.
Tree hyrax female from Taita Hills
Spectrogram image of strangled thwack
Sound sample of strangled thwack

2. Taita tree hyraxes sing, these songs may last more than 12 minutes. In these songs several different syllables are combined in different order. Most likely these songs are used by males to attract females.

Tree hyrax song sample from Taita Hills

3. The other dwarf galago population is Kenya coast dwarf galago population (Paragalago cocos). This population is almost extinct with only about 10 individuals.

Kenya coast dwarf galago is living on mountain of Taita Hills.
Spectrogam of dwarf galago calls from Taita Hills
Recording from population believed to be Kenya coast dwarf galago in Taita Hills

4. Small-eared greater galagos in Taita Hills belong to subspecies Otolemur garnettii lasiotis. This was confirmed by comparing acoustical analysis from different subspecies.

Young male O. g. lasiotis with very white tail from Taita Hills

Comments

One response to “Vocalization Analyses of Nocturnal Arboreal Mammals of the Taita Hills, Kenya”

  1. Tutkimuksen esittely, Hanna Rosti ja tutkimusryhmä – Animals of Taita, Kenya avatar
    Tutkimuksen esittely, Hanna Rosti ja tutkimusryhmä – Animals of Taita, Kenya

    […] keskittyi näiden kolmen lajin akustiseen kommunikaatioon. Ensimmäinen artikkeli kuvasi lajien ääntelyä ja käyttäytymistä. Toinen artikkeli käsitteli puutamaanien suojelubiologiaa, sitä mitä puita puutamaanit […]

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