October 16, 2012
Wild Monkeys Watch Fights To Exploit Losers For Grooming

Wild macaques who are bystanders to fights within their group exploit the losers for grooming favours, new research has shown.

The findings, published in the journalAnimal Behaviour, reveal previously unknown details about the important function observing others’ aggressive behaviour serves in primate society, and may even help to explain why humans often hold a fascination with watching fights.

The study by Dr Bonaventura Majolo from the University of Lincoln, UK, and Dr Richard McFarland from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, is the first of its kind to fully scrutinise ‘bystander affiliation’ in wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus).

Bystander affiliation describes a range of friendly social interactions, such as grooming, shared by victims and witnesses following aggressive interactions in animal societies.

Reconciliation between former adversaries after confrontations is a common and well-studied aspect of primate society but the nature of bystander affiliation is less well-understood.

It had been assumed the behaviour serves largely as consolation for the victim, alleviating anxiety felt after a defeat. However, the latest study suggests that bystanders may have more selfish motivations.

The team found that in most instances, it is bystanders who initiate contact with victims and when grooming does result, bystanders reap the benefits for longer.

They concluded that rather than offering consolation or protection, bystanders tend to exploit the vulnerable position of defeated individuals in order to elicit grooming. Grooming is not just a socially important behaviour in primate society; it also confers selective advantages, such as the removal of parasites.

Dr Majolo, from the School of Psychology at the University of Lincoln, said: “One of the reasons why we humans are so interested in watching aggressive interactions may be that these conflicts provide a wealth of important information about others in our group. There should therefore have been strong selective pressure on our ancestors to pay attention to such events.

“Our observation of grooming exploitation among wild Barbary macaques would support the theory that observing aggressive interactions between group companions can have a range of social benefits and functions.”

Read More at sciencedaily.com

5:04pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z8EaJxVPNS82
(Notes: 5)
  
Filed under: Animal Science Anthropology Primate Monkey Macaque Fight Social Evolutionary Psychology 
August 23, 2011

candide94:

Isabel Behncke is a (hot) primatologist at Oxford - she specializes in play among wild bonobos. Play is defined as the ability to do things spontaneously and socially that induce pleasure. The bonobos spend most of their time playing; whereas chimpanzees will groom one another constantly as part of conflict resolution, bonobos will simply fool and mess around. Bonobos will engage in sex as a means of cementing friendships and social relations - bisexual sex is common. Behncke notes that in all social animals play continues into adulthood - think about it, all our friendships are built around play, whether it be sporting, joking, gossiping, sexual, or gaming based play. Without play, social relationships cannot be maintained - that joviality and relaxedness is in a way what society is based upon. We make friends at work because of the banter not because of the work. Play is a way of using our imagination, of doing things without inhibitions. There is nothing magical about this - Behncke suggests the adaptive joker hypothesis: we know that variability - the ability to deal with new strange situations in novel ways - is adaptive. Play, in bonobos and humans, is seen as kind of a hypothesis-tester, a way of practising your variability, to stay flexible. I would argue that children’s play - often involving dens, camping, building things, painting new ideas, manipulating objects, learning social roles in ‘house’, medicine in nurses and doctors - could be viewed as an adaptive training ground for our future lives. This just shows the importance of learning through play … young children are not taught to play, they invent their own world and their own games. Bonobos do the same. 

I suggest you watch the talk, short but fascinating. She’s a clever woman.

(via fyeahgreatapes)

8:37pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z8EaJx8gRQhH
(Notes: 18)
  
Filed under: bonobos bonobo chimpanzee primates apes isabel behncke play sex humans evolution anthropology evolutionary psychology primatology