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Updated: May 1, 2026

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

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Published on: April 19, 2017

Individual recognition through olfactory-auditory matching in lemurs.

Ipek G Kulahci¹, Christine M Drea, Daniel I Rubenstein

¹Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, , Princeton, NJ 08544 USA, Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, , Durham, NC 27708, USA, Department of Biology, Duke University, , Durham, NC 27708, USA, Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, , Princeton, NJ 08540, USA, Department of Psychology, Princeton University, , Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.

Proceedings. Biological Sciences

|April 18, 2014

Summary

Ring-tailed lemurs can recognize familiar individuals by matching scents with vocalizations. This multisensory integration suggests complex social recognition abilities in these primates.

Keywords:

Lemur catta cross-modal individual identity individual recognition multimodal sex differences

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Sampling and Analysis of Animal Scent Signals

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Published on: February 13, 2021

Area of Science:

Animal behavior
Primate cognition
Sensory ecology

Background:

Individual recognition is crucial for social animals.
Multisensory integration aids in forming representations of familiar individuals.
Vertebrates commonly use auditory-visual matching, but other sensory combinations are less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the role of olfactory signals in multisensory recognition in ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta).
To determine if lemurs can recognize familiar individuals by matching scents and vocalizations.

Main Methods:

Lemurs were presented with female scents paired with either the same female's contact call or another familiar female's call.
Behavioral responses (interest in scents and vocalizations) were recorded.

Main Results:

Lemurs showed greater interest in scents when the scent and vocalization originated from the same individual.
Males exhibited increased interest in both scents and vocalizations under congruent conditions.
This suggests successful olfactory-auditory matching for individual recognition.

Conclusions:

Ring-tailed lemurs demonstrate the ability to recognize familiar individuals through olfactory-auditory matching.
This indicates the formation of multisensory representations, even when signals are encountered separately in space and time.
The findings highlight a novel form of sensory integration in primate social recognition.