Reduction of forest cover is changing the way monkeys vocalize and communicate. Research led by an anthropologist from the University of Waterloo has come up with the interesting finding that the vocal patterns of Howler monkeys seem to differ in response to different types of forest edge areas.Working in a tropical lowland rainforest in Costa Rica, the researchers examined how human- impacted forest habitat changes have affected vegetation and, in turn, the rate and length of howling by the howler monkey species.Led by Laura Bolt, an adjunct professor of anthropology at Waterloo, the study compared how the communication behavior of the mantled howler monkey differs in forest edges impacted by human activity, known as anthropogenic edges, compared to natural forest edges."Howler monkeys are well-known for making very loud, long-distance vocalizations called howls," said Bolt. "While howls are only produced by adult males, howl function is not entirely known, so we conducted our study .
