Figure 1.

Schematic of vocalization types in members of the mongoose family. (a) Meerkats Suricata suricatta produce functionally referential alarm calls that signal both predator location (terrestrial versus aerial) and urgency. (b) Banded mongooses (Mungos mungo) produce close calls that sequentially encode both individual identity (a 'vocal signature') and current activity. This provides the first known example in animals of phonological syntax within a single referential signal. (Figure by Nadja Kavcik.)