Grooming Solicitation & Hierarchy in Cercopithecus petaurista

Authors

Ryan Domitz, University of Central Florida

Mentor

Frank Logiudice

Abstract

Allogrooming is a behavioral adaptation present in many primate systems that serves to organize social hierarchies and promote social cohesion by placating future agonistic conspecifics. Lesser Spot-Nosed Guenons (Cercopithecus petaurista) are one species that exhibits allogrooming both in the wild and in captive populations. In a population of C. petaurista, dominant males perform proportionately less allogrooming than do females, possibly indicating dominant individuals are the recipients of higher rates of allogrooming than are subordinate ones. My case study catalogs the activity budgets of three captive Lesser Spot-Nosed monkeys and investigates the relationship between allogrooming, solicitation of allogrooming, and aggression. It also examines whether or not these activities can be quantified as metrics for measuring hierarchy. Consistent with the literature, I found no association between allogrooming and aggression. Instead my study supports a positive correlation between aggression and grooming solicitation as a metric of hierarchy

About the Author

Ryan Domitz graduated from UCF August 2017 with his Bachelor's Degree in Biology and a minor in Anthropology. His focus and passion are primates; however, he has experience dealing with all sorts of animals from big cats, like tigers and lions, to baboons and ostriches. He has studied behavioral dynamics of social hierarchy as well as disease ecology.

Recommended Citation

Domitz, Ryan (2018) "Grooming Solicitation & Hierarchy in Cercopithecus petaurista," The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 10: Iss. 1, Article 4.
Available at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/urj/vol10/iss1/4