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Whom to Groom and for What? Patterns of Grooming in Female Barbary Macaques (Macaca sylvanus)

Grooming is one of the most conspicuous social interactions among nonhuman primates. The selection of grooming partners can provide important clues about factors relevant for the distribution of grooming within a social group. We analyzed grooming behavior among 17 semi-free ranging female Barbary m...

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Autores principales: Roubová, Veronika, Konečná, Martina, Šmilauer, Petr, Wallner, Bernard
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4323340/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25668722
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0117298
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author Roubová, Veronika
Konečná, Martina
Šmilauer, Petr
Wallner, Bernard
author_facet Roubová, Veronika
Konečná, Martina
Šmilauer, Petr
Wallner, Bernard
author_sort Roubová, Veronika
collection PubMed
description Grooming is one of the most conspicuous social interactions among nonhuman primates. The selection of grooming partners can provide important clues about factors relevant for the distribution of grooming within a social group. We analyzed grooming behavior among 17 semi-free ranging female Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus). We tested whether grooming is related to kinship, rank and friendship. Furthermore, we tested whether grooming is reciprocated or exchanged for rank related benefits (i.e. lower aggression and increased tolerance whilst feeding). We found that in general grooming was reciprocally exchanged, directed up the hierarchy and at the same time affected by friendship and kinship. Grooming was more frequent among individuals with higher friendship values as well as amongst related individuals. We also divided our data set on the basis of rank difference and tested if different power asymmetries between individuals affected the tendency to exchange grooming for rank related benefits and grooming reciprocation. In support of our initial hypothesis our results show that the reciprocation of grooming was a significant predictor of grooming interactions between individuals of similar rank, but not between those individuals more distantly separated in the social hierarchy. However, we did not find any evidence for grooming being exchanged for rank related benefits in either data set. Our results, together with previously published studies, illustrate the behavioral flexibility of macaques. It is clear that multiple studies of the same species are necessary to gather the data required for the solid comparative studies needed to shed light on patterns of grooming behavior in primates.
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spelling pubmed-43233402015-02-18 Whom to Groom and for What? Patterns of Grooming in Female Barbary Macaques (Macaca sylvanus) Roubová, Veronika Konečná, Martina Šmilauer, Petr Wallner, Bernard PLoS One Research Article Grooming is one of the most conspicuous social interactions among nonhuman primates. The selection of grooming partners can provide important clues about factors relevant for the distribution of grooming within a social group. We analyzed grooming behavior among 17 semi-free ranging female Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus). We tested whether grooming is related to kinship, rank and friendship. Furthermore, we tested whether grooming is reciprocated or exchanged for rank related benefits (i.e. lower aggression and increased tolerance whilst feeding). We found that in general grooming was reciprocally exchanged, directed up the hierarchy and at the same time affected by friendship and kinship. Grooming was more frequent among individuals with higher friendship values as well as amongst related individuals. We also divided our data set on the basis of rank difference and tested if different power asymmetries between individuals affected the tendency to exchange grooming for rank related benefits and grooming reciprocation. In support of our initial hypothesis our results show that the reciprocation of grooming was a significant predictor of grooming interactions between individuals of similar rank, but not between those individuals more distantly separated in the social hierarchy. However, we did not find any evidence for grooming being exchanged for rank related benefits in either data set. Our results, together with previously published studies, illustrate the behavioral flexibility of macaques. It is clear that multiple studies of the same species are necessary to gather the data required for the solid comparative studies needed to shed light on patterns of grooming behavior in primates. Public Library of Science 2015-02-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4323340/ /pubmed/25668722 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0117298 Text en © 2015 Roubová et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Roubová, Veronika
Konečná, Martina
Šmilauer, Petr
Wallner, Bernard
Whom to Groom and for What? Patterns of Grooming in Female Barbary Macaques (Macaca sylvanus)
title Whom to Groom and for What? Patterns of Grooming in Female Barbary Macaques (Macaca sylvanus)
title_full Whom to Groom and for What? Patterns of Grooming in Female Barbary Macaques (Macaca sylvanus)
title_fullStr Whom to Groom and for What? Patterns of Grooming in Female Barbary Macaques (Macaca sylvanus)
title_full_unstemmed Whom to Groom and for What? Patterns of Grooming in Female Barbary Macaques (Macaca sylvanus)
title_short Whom to Groom and for What? Patterns of Grooming in Female Barbary Macaques (Macaca sylvanus)
title_sort whom to groom and for what? patterns of grooming in female barbary macaques (macaca sylvanus)
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4323340/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25668722
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0117298
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