A Statistical Analysis of the Social Behavior of the Male Stumptail Macaque (Macaca arctoides)

by David B. Adams
Department of Psychology; Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut,
and
W. Michael Schoel,
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

American Journal of Primatology, Volume 2, pages 249-273 © 1982, Wiley-Liss, Inc., Reproduced with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Title/summary page

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Introduction
Page 1

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Materials and Methods
Pages 2 - 3

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Results
Pages 4 - 5 - 6 - 7

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Discussion
Pages 8 - 9

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Conclusions
Page 10

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References
Page 11

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Figures 1- 8
Figures 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8

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Tables I-IV
Tables I - II - III - IV

SUMMARY

The social behavior of male stumptail macaques was analyzed in terms of behavioral sequences recorded during paired encounters in a large test cage. Recurrent patterns of behavioral sequences were sought and used to hypothesize the structure of motivational systems of social behavior as has been done previously for other species. In addition to traditional statistical analyses to determine which dyadic behavioral sequences were nonrandom, there were several methodological innovations. Instead of analyzing behavior as a single channel of communications, we analyzed three independent channels and considered their inter-correlations: 1) acts and postures; 2) vocalizations; and 3) facial expressions. Also, we analyzed not only within-animal behavioral sequences but between-animal sequences as well. Results were derived from 40 tests, most of which included vigorous agonistic and sexual interactions and a behavioral repertoire similar to that of adult male stumptail macaques observed by previous investigators. There were 30 acts and postures, eight facial expressions, and seven vocalizations that occurred more than five times. Many acts and postures occurred in nonrandom sequences, 43 such sequences within-animal and 40 between-animal. From these sequences and their correlations with specific vocalizations and facial expressions, it was possible to differentiate six categories of social behavior that may correspond to six different motivational systems: offense, defense, submission, groom and contact, male sexual behavior, and display. Both the frequency of behaviors in each category and the nature of the behavioral sequences were affected by the relative dominance of the two animals.


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