Copulation calls indicate fertility but do not reflect female mate competition in wild Guinea baboons
Across different modalities, signals play a core role in attracting mates and influencing mating success. In several non-human primate species, females produce calls during mating that are thought to promote male competition over receptive females. The extent to which social system characteristics modulate the function of copulation calls remains less clear. We studied copulation calls in wild…
Researchers have discovered that copulation calls made by female Guinea baboons do not necessarily indicate female mate competition, nor do they influence the timing of subsequent matings. The study, conducted on wild Guinea baboons (Papio papio) living in multilevel social units, found that female baboons use these calls as an indicator of fertility rather than a tool for competition.
Across 6,116 copulations from 2014 to 2025 involving 99 adult females and 78 subadult and adult males, calling occurred in 72.7% of instances, with significant variation between individuals. Factors such as the size of the social unit, the swelling size of the female, and the presence of other receptive females had no impact on the likelihood of a female producing a copulation call.
Additionally, a survival analysis of 2,353 copulations showed that calling did not affect the time until the next mating. The results suggest that Guinea baboon copulation calls may be an evolutionary remnant, no longer subject to selective pressure, serving more as signals of female fertility than as tools for mate competition.
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