Vervetmonkeys.docVIP

Questions 24-35 are based on the following passage. This discussion of vervet monkeys is from a 1984 book about animal communication. Vervet monkeys have at least three different categories of alarm calls. When a leopard or other large carnivorous mammal approaches, the monkeys give one type of alarm call; quite a different call is used at the sight of a martial 5 eagle, one of the few flying predators that captures vervet monkeys. A third type of alarm call is given when a large snake approaches the group. This degree of differentiation of alarm calls is not unique, although it has been described in only a few kinds of animals. When ethologists, who 10 study animal behavior, interpret data of this kind, they require proof that variations in animal communication signals convey anything more than information about the communicators internal state. The first and relatively simple question is whether the 15 vervet monkeys three types of alarm calls convey to other monkeys information about the type of predator. Such information is important, because the animals defensive tactics are different in the three cases. When a leopard approaches, the monkeys climb into trees. But leopards are 20 good climbers, so the monkeys can escape them only by climbing out onto the smallest branches, which are too weak to support a leopard. When the monkeys see a martial eagle, they move into thick vegetation close to a tree trunk or at ground level. Thus the tactics that help escape from a 25 leopard make them highly Vulnerable to a martial eagle, and vice versa. In response to the threat of a large snake, they stand on their hind legs and look around to locate the snake, then simply move away from it, either along the ground or by climbing into a tree. 30 Knowing that the monkeys give different alarm calls when they see different predators does not establish beyond a doubt that the calls actually describe the type of predator. When the monkeys, which are usually close to eac