Similarity in food cleaning techniques within matrilines in wild vervet monkeys.

ABSTRACT: Social learning and the formation of traditions rely on the ability and willingness to copy one another. A central question is under which conditions individuals adapt behaviour to social influences. Here, we demonstrate that similarities in food processing techniques emerge on the level of matrilines (mother-offspring) but not on the group level in an experiment on six groups of wild vervet monkeys that involved grapes covered with sand. Monkeys regularly ate unclean grapes but also used four cleaning techniques more similarly within matrilines: rubbing in hands, rubbing on substrate, open with mouth, and open with hands. Individual cleaning techniques evolved over time as they converged within matrilines, stabilised at the end and remained stable in a follow-up session more than one year

SUBMITTER: van de Waal E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3338447 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature