What species of monkey has distinct alarm calls for eagles, snakes, and leopards?

The monkey with distinct alarm calls for eagles, snakes, and leopards is the vervet monkey. Vervets are African Old World monkeys that live in social groups and use a varied vocal system to warn companions about different predators.

A leopard on the ground, an eagle overhead, and a snake nearby pose different dangers, so the appropriate escape response also differs. Vervets may climb into trees to avoid a leopard, scan the sky or descend from exposed branches after an aerial threat, and react differently to a snake. Their calls are acoustically distinct rather than imitations of the predators themselves.

This behavior became famous in animal-communication research because it suggests that calls can convey information about an external threat. Young vervets learn much of the system by observing older animals, although researchers still debate how closely these calls resemble human words or language.

The classic description usually mentions eagles, snakes, and leopards, while modern accounts also document calls associated with other threats, including baboons and humans. That broader repertoire does not change the quiz answer: among the listed choices, the vervet monkey is the canonical species associated with predator-specific alarm calls.