The varied alarm calls of the vervet monkey

Three different alarm calls used by vervet monkeys to warn other individuals in the group exactly what type of predator to beware of.

The "snake" alarm call would cause the group to stand up and study the ground, while the "eagle" alarm call would see them dive into bushes or the middle of trees where an aerial predator could not reach them. The "leopard" alarm call would send individuals scuttling up to the very tops of the trees.

The first set of calls are made by a male. The second by a female vervet monkey.

(Copyright: Robert Seyfarth, Dorothy Cheney and Peter Marler)