“Mine” or “yours”? Acoustic structure of food calls predicts sharing decisions in marmosets

Kaja Wierucka, Sven Winiger, Sandro Sehner, Judith M. Burkart

Foraging and feeding are often associated with vocalisations across animal species. Food calls may function to claim ownership of resources or recruit others to feeding sites, yet their potential role in facilitating food sharing remains poorly understood. This study investigates the relationship between food calls and food-sharing behaviour in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus), focusing on adult–infant interactions, where food transfers are most frequent. We analysed over 1000 food interactions across six groups, categorising events as non-sharing (without begging or despite begging) or sharing (proactive, resisted, or facilitated). We examined the spectro-temporal structure of food calls produced immediately before each interaction. Food transfers were more likely to occur when preceded by a food call, suggesting a functional link between food calls and sharing. Random forest models reliably classified food calls according to interaction type, while generalized linear mixed models identified acoustic variation associated with sharing outcomes. Our results suggest that food calls encode information to either encourage or deter conspecific (infant) approach, influencing food transfer outcomes. These findings highlight the role of food calls in modulating social interactions around food in marmosets, advancing our understanding of vocal communication and its integration with cooperative behaviours in primates.
Keywords: vocal communication, acoustic cues, primate, food sharing, communicative complexity, marmoset, social coordination

The videos of the food interactions were analysed with Mangold INTERACT.