Who says what when? Patterns in captive common marmoset ( Callithrix jacchus ) volubility

Background Volubility, the number of vocalizations per unit of time, is a relatively understudied aspect of animal communication, potentially crucial in highly social systems like cooperative breeders that depend on coordinated behavior. Callitrichid monkeys, including common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus), are often characterized as highly vocal, yet the variation in their calling rates due to context or individual differences remains poorly quantified. In this study, we systematically examined captive marmoset volubility across different social and informational contexts, call types, and individual characteristics.

We tested marmosets in dyads in different experimental conditions and recorded a total of 70,260 vocalizations. Overall, calling rates were not influenced by sex or status. Instead, volubility varied mainly with condition: rates increased when visually separated from the partner and individually encountering ecologically salient stimuli such as ambiguous objects or food, consistent with context-sensitive signaling and information asymmetry. Contact calls were more frequent in food-related contexts, indicating a recruiting function. Arousal calls were strongly predicted by age, with younger individuals calling more, especially when confronted with an ambiguous object. Food calls occurred almost exclusively during direct interactions with food, particularly during feeding. Dyadic analyses revealed covariation between callers’ and partners’ arousal calls, consistent with vocal contagion. In contrast, we found no contagion effects for food calls. Instead, food calls by a breeder encountering food increased contact calling in their naïve dyad partners.

Overall, marmoset volubility is flexible and call-type-specific, shows signatures of information sharing under information asymmetry, and highlights their nuanced communication strategies. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.