Monkeys have their own names for each other like humans: study finds

Scientists who observed that behaviour marmoset monkeys believe the creatures are able to call one another by name.

Apart from humans, only dolphins and elephants had previously been found to use vocal communication to talk to members of their own species.

Marmoset are social primates that live in small family groups and are known to use whistle-like vocalisations called “phee calls” to inform other marmosets about their location.

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In each experiment the team placed a pair of marmosets, with various relationships to each other, in a room and let them interact. They then separated them using a barrier so the monkeys could not see each other, and recorded their calls.

The researchers found the monkeys naturally engaged in spontaneous phee call chit-chat, taking turns at making calls.

When they analysed the vocalisations, however, they found the marmosets used distinct phee-calls for each monkey on the other side of the barrier, similar to names in humans.