Singing for survival to large cats, snakes and birds of prey, the gibbons warn their own group members and those in neighbouring areas.

Primatologists, Klaus Zuberbuhler and Ulrich Reichard said, "We found that gibbons appear to use loud 'long-distance' calls to warn relatives in neighbouring areas and that those groups responded by joining in the singing, matching the correct predator song, demonstrating that they understood the difference between calls...

"Vocal behaviour appears to function as a powerful tool to deal with immense sexual competition under which these primates operate, and it may not be surprising that they have evolved unusually complex vocal skills to deal with these social challenges.

"Not unlike humans, gibbons assemble a finite number of call units into more complex structures to convey different messages, and our data shows that distant individuals are able to distinguish between different song types and understand what they mean."

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