Wild indris lemurs open their mouths wider on high notes just like opera sopranos, study finds

From the Newshound archive · first published 21 September 2026 · last updated 22 September 2026.

Wild indris lemurs employ a vocal technique also found in trained opera singers, according to new research published in PLOS Computational Biology. Analysis of 83 calls from 19 wild indris in Madagascar captured the animals opening their mouths more widely as pitch increased — the same formant tuning technique human sopranos spend years mastering. University of Warwick honorary research fellow Chiara De Gregorio said the coordination was visible "frame by frame" and is the kind of precision "we usually associate with trained human singers, not a lemur singing from the forest canopy." The technique may help indri songs carry through dense rainforest canopy over vast distances.

Indris — also known as babakotos — are the only lemur species known to sing, using haunting calls to bond with their group and warn rivals away.

By widening their mouths, indris reshape the vocal tract to align with the note's frequency, amplifying sound — exactly what sopranos did before microphones existed.

De Gregorio says formant tuning in a wild animal could determine whether a song reaches its audience or is "lost in the foliage."