Clever little monkeys with a secret gift for language

MONKEYS have language ‘hard-wired’ in their brains ready to be used if needed, scientists believe.

A study of West African green monkeys discovered they had created a warning call after encountering manmade drones.

In the natural world, the monkeys have two such calls, for snakes and leopards.

When they hear the snake call, they stand still on two legs to avoid getting bitten, while the leopard alert makes them climb a tree so they can’t get caught.

Now the monkeys have spontaneously come up with a third call, for drones, despite never seeing them before.

Green monkeys do not have a call to warn about aerial predators because birds of prey are not thought to attack them. But the call they devised for drones is startlingly similar to the warning sound used by vervet monkeys, when they are under threat of attack by eagles.

Scientists say this shows primitive language is ‘hard-wired’ in monkey brains, available to be used as soon as they need it.

Professor Julia Fischer, of the German Primate Centre, whose study is published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution today, said: ‘The animals quickly learned what the previously unknown sounds mean and remembered this. This shows their ability for auditory learning.’

Researchers in Senegal flew drones at 200ft towards the monkeys.

As the drones circled, the animals produced chirping warning sounds, scanning the sky and running for cover just as vervet monkeys do when eagles are overhead.

After hearing a drone in the sky only one to three times, the monkeys remembered the threat – and reacted in the same way – almost three weeks later.