Behaviour, biology and the social condition of Cercopithecus Aethiops, the Vervet Monkey.
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Date
1984
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Abstract
Biotelemetry has been coupled with an ethological approach to
investigate a postulate that the physiological, behavioural, and social
functioning of individuals coact in order to maintain homeostasis in an
everchanging environment. Attention was focussed upon body temperature,
behaviour, and the social situation, as they occurred together in each of
five 'undisturbed' adult vervet monkeys. One male and one female were
housed alone in single cages, and the other three, all females, were part
of a natural troop that live together in captivity in a 6.5 metre radius
geodesic dome.
Intensive studies, including in-depth and multiple repeated measures
at each level of functioning permitted comparisons between and within
subjects, so that the connections between body temperature, and individual
and social behaviour, could be scrutinised. Techniques for observation,
data processing, and factor analysis have been considered, and procedures
to facilitate the organisation and interpretation of information are
suggested.
The results pointed to individual variations superimposed upon a
rhythmic underpinning of all the functions monitored. A synthesis of the
data of body temperature with individual and social behaviour supports the
contention that the individual responds to the vagaries of the environment
as an integrated system within which the different levels of functioning
are linked. It was found that the oscillation in body temperature was
greater in the vervets that lived alone than in the vervets that lived in a
troop. These results were supported behaviourally since the isolated
subjects could only complement autonomic thermoregulatory responses with
individually based behavioural strategies, whereas their troop-living
conspecifics could utilise both individual and socially directed behavioural
mechanisms. Within the troop an inverse relationship between body
temperature variation and social status was revealed that is, the lower
the status of the subject, the more the body temperature fluctuated around
the mean. Behaviourally, it was found that the lower the status of the
subject, the more difficult it became to gain access to resources, and to
manipulate interpersonal space. In addition, harassment by troop
conspecifics increased and, consequently, the efficiency with which
behavioural patterns could be executed, was decreased.
An analysis of the data also led to the proposal that social grooming
has evolved as a thermoregulatory mechanism; to the identification of three
different facets of individual behaviour and of social behaviour; and to the
idea that the rhythmic changes in the troop's spatial conformation
reflected cyclical patterns in behavioural and social activity.
Description
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal Durban, 1984.
Keywords
Monkeys--Behaviour., Monkeys--Physiology., Theses--Psychology.