Vocalization Analyses of Nocturnal Arboreal Mammals of the Taita Hills, Kenya

By Hanna Rosti14.12.2020

Article published 14.12.2020 in MDPI journal Diversity

This article describes acoustic communication of Taita tree hyrax (*Dendrohyrax*), dwarf galago (*Paragalago*) populations living in Taita Hills and small-eared greater galago (*Otolemur garnettii lasiotis*) population.

Link to the open access article

This article is written by Hanna Rosti, Jouko Rikkinen, Henry Pihlström, Simon Bearder and Petri Pellikka.

Main findings:

Tree hyraxes from Taita Hills most likely belong to previously undescribed species. This is based on call named ‘strangled thwack’ that is not heard from other tree hyrax species.

Sound sample of strangled thwack

2. Taita tree hyraxes sing, these songs may last more than 12 minutes. In these songs several different syllables are combined in different order. Most likely these songs are used by males to attract females.

Tree hyrax song sample from Taita Hills

3. The other dwarf galago population is Kenya coast dwarf galago population (Paragalago cocos). This population is almost extinct with only about 10 individuals.

Kenya coast dwarf galago is living on mountain of Taita Hills.

Spectrogam of dwarf galago calls from Taita Hills

Recording from population believed to be Kenya coast dwarf galago in Taita Hills

4. Small-eared greater galagos in Taita Hills belong to subspecies Otolemur garnettii lasiotis. This was confirmed by comparing acoustical analysis from different subspecies.