Flexible decision-making in grooming partner choice in sooty mangabeys and chimpanzees.

ABSTRACT: Living in permanent social groups forces animals to make decisions about when, how and with whom to interact, requiring decisions to be made that integrate multiple sources of information. Changing social environments can influence this decision-making process by constraining choice or altering the likelihood of a positive outcome. Here, we conceptualized grooming as a choice situation where an individual chooses one of a number of potential partners. Studying two wild populations of sympatric primate species, sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys atys) and western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus), we tested what properties of potential partners influenced grooming decisions, including their relative value based on available alternatives and the social relationships of potentia

SUBMITTER: Mielke A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6083658 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature