By Susan Milius
When a chimp has sex in the forest, will she make a sound?
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/8138.jpg?resize=300%2C256&ssl=1)
Depends in part on who’s listening, literally, says a scientist who has spent months recording chimp sex sounds in the wild.
With lots of other females within earshot, a female chimp typically doesn’t give a call, says Simon Townsend of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. With a largely male audience, though, she’s more likely to give what primatologists call copulation squeaks or screams.