POSSIBLE ALTERNATION OF REST-ACTIVITY CYCLE AND VIGILANCE BEHAVIOR IN PERIPHERAL MALE STUMPTAILED MACAQUES (MACACA ARCTOIDES) IN EXTERIOR CAPTIVITY: A PRELIMINARY REPORT
Artículo académico
Visión General
Visión General
Abstracto
Social structures emerge in primate groups mainly as a response toenvironmental pressures. Social structure impacts significantly onpredator detection, food gathering and reproduction, and it isalso an indicator of social condition and age and sex categorieswithin the group. Differentiated activities which depend on socialstatus, sex and age have been described in established socialgroups of primates. Dominance patterns influence the behaviorof some species. It seems that the night-time spatial arrangementof members of a primate group is an anti-predation strategy,either by increasing detection and defensive capabilities in thecase of large sleeping groups, or by emphasizing inconspicuousnessin the case of more solitary sleepers. The persistence of socialorganization during rest-activity cycles in primate groups allowsfor the prediction that individuals in a group having the samemonitoring needs may alternate their rest-activity condition toassure vigilance. In this study, we examined the rest and activityconditions of two peripheral individuals in an established socialgroup of M. arctoides. Each subject was videorecorded twice fortwo continous periods of 24 hours each, totaling a videorecordingof 96 hours. The rest and activity conditions observed in bothsubjects were grouped in the four possible conditions:Condition 1. Subject A resting, subject B resting;Condition 2. Subject A resting, subject B active;Condition 3. Subject A active, subject B resting;Condition 4. Subject A active, subject B active.These were compared with a concordance test. Results revealedthat peripheral males alternated their rest-activity cycles. That is,while one subject was resting, the other remained active. Thepossibility that rest-activity alternation is an adaptation to maintainconstant vigilance is discussed.
