Journal
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR
Volume 76, Issue -, Pages 455-465Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.01.024
Keywords
affiation; juvenile; Macaca mulatta; personality; relationships; rhesus macaque; social behaviour; temperament
Categories
Funding
- NCRR NIH HHS [R24 RR019970, R24 RR019970-05, P51 RR000169, P51 RR000169-467031] Funding Source: Medline
- NIH HHS [R24 OD010962] Funding Source: Medline
- NIMH NIH HHS [T32 MH020006-10, T32 MH020006] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Affiliative relationship formation in nonhuman primates is influenced by kinship, rank and sex, but these factors do not fully explain observed variation in primate social relations. Individual differences in temperament have a number of important behavioural and physiological correlates that might influence relationship formation. We observed 57 yearling rhesus macaques at the California National Primate Research Center for 10 weeks to determine whether individual differences in temperament relate to the number and quality of affiliative relationships formed with peers. Subjects' temperament characteristics had previously been quantified during a colony-wide biobehavioural assessment when subjects were 90-120 days of age. Yearlings that had scored high on equability ( showed calmness and low levels of physical activity) as infants had fewer peer relationships than yearlings that had scored low on this dimension. In addition, yearlings preferentially affiliated with peers that had similar equability and adaptability scores ( reflecting the degree of behavioural flexibility that subjects displayed during the biobehavioural assessment). Although kinship, rank and sex influenced relationship formation as expected, temperament remained a significant predictor of affiliative preferences even after controlling for these variables. Our findings suggest that temperament is a proximate determinant of variation in affiliative relationship formation in group-living primates. (c) 2008 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available