Induced cooperation to access a shareable reward increases the hierarchical segregation of wild vervet monkeys.

ABSTRACT: Until now cooperation experiments in primates have paid little attention to how cooperation can emerge and what effects are produced on the structure of a social group in nature. I performed field experiments with three groups of wild vervet monkeys in South Africa. I induced individuals to repeatedly approach and operate food containers. At least two individuals needed to operate the containers in order to get the reward. The recurrent partner associations observed before the experiment only partly predicted the forming of cooperative partnerships during the experiment. While most of the tested subjects cooperated with other partners, they preferred to do so with specific combinations of individuals and they tended not to mix with other group members outside these preferred partnerships.

SUBMITTER: Pansini R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3140478 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature