Singing lemurs use opera technique, study finds

A species of lemur known for its song appears to use a similar technique to opera singers, researchers have found.

Scientists from the University of Warwick, the University of Turin and the indri lemurs' home nation Madagascar have spent a number of years watching the species.

They have produced a new study which finds the lemurs open their mouths wider to reach higher notes - similar to a trained soprano.

Dr Chiara De Gregorio, honorary research fellow at the University of Warwick, said the animals had shown "the kind of fine-tuned coordination between voice and body that we usually associate with trained human singers, not with a lemur singing from the forest canopy".

"Every time the pitch of an indri's song rose, we could see its mouth opening wider, frame by frame," she said.

It is the first direct evidence of this kind of vocal-tract coordination in a non-human primate, according to the researchers.

The team behind the study of Madagascan lemurs has previously said their work could give a greater insight into how humans evolved to create music.

Another study, published in 2025, found young lemurs learned to sing in a similar manner to human children.

The new study includes evidence that wild indris coordinate their mouth opening with the frequency of their songs, allowing them to amplify the sound.

This is known as formant tuning, and is widely used by professional singers to maximise the power of their voices.

Researchers studying indris believe the primates may use the technique for a similar purpose - to make their songs carry further in the thick forest.

The research team analysed 83 video recordings of 19 wild indris, using motion-tracking technology to watch the position of their lips.

Although humans and indris share a common ancestor approximately 74 million years ago, the scientists believe the techniques to project sound were developed independently.

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