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Young meerkats learn the emotion before the message in threat calls

Human speech provides simultaneous information about a person's emotions and objects in the environment. Past research has shown that animal vocalizations can do the same, but little is known about the development of the features that encode such information. Observing wild, but habituated, meerkats (Suricata suricatta) in the Kalahari Desert, researchers from the University of Zürich have shown that a youngster's understanding about the urgency of a threatening situation develops earlier than their understanding about the type of threat faced.

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Keywords: young, meerkats, learn, emotion, message, threat, calls, meerkat, call

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