Personality trait structures across three species of Macaca, using survey ratings of responses to conspecifics and humans.

Comparative studies reliant on single personality surveys to rate wild primates are scarce yet remain critical for developing a holistic comparative understanding of personality. Differences in survey design, item exclusion, and factor selection impede cross-study comparisons. To address these challenges, we used consistently collected data to assess personality trait structures in wild rhesus (Macaca mulatta), bonnet (M.

Lethal dog attacks on adult rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) in an anthropogenic landscape.

For nonhuman primates living in anthropogenic areas, predation by larger predators is relatively rare. However, smaller predators, such as free-ranging as well as domesticated dogs, can shape the socioecology of urban nonhuman primates, either directly by attacking and killing them or indirectly by modifying their activity patterns. Here, we describe three (two probably fatal) cases of dog attacks on adult rhesus macaques inhabiting an anthropogenic landscape in Northern India and the circumstances surrounding these incidents.

What you have, not who you know: food-enhanced social capital and changes in social behavioural relationships in a non-human primate.

Social network position in non-human primates has far-reaching fitness consequences. Critically, social networks are both heterogeneous and dynamic, meaning an individual's current network position is likely to change due to both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. However, our understanding of the drivers of changes in social network position is largely confined to opportunistic studies.

Social stability via management of natal males in captive rhesus macaques ().

Keystone individuals are expected to disproportionately contribute to group stability. For instance, rhesus macaques ( who police conflict contribute towards stability. Not all individuals' motivations align with mechanisms of group stability.

Repeatability of measures of behavioral organization over two years in captive infant rhesus macaques, Macaca mulatta.

Individual differences of infant temperament have been associated with future health outcomes that provide explanatory power beyond adult personality. Despite the importance of such a metric, our developmental understanding of personality-like traits is poor. Therefore, we examined whether young primates show consistency in personality traits throughout development.

Effect of behavioural sampling methods on local and global social network metrics: a case-study of three macaque species.

Social network analysis (SNA) is a powerful, quantitative tool to measure animals' direct and indirect social connectedness in the context of social groups. However, the extent to which behavioural sampling methods influence SNA metrics remains unclear. To fill this gap, here we compare network indices of grooming, huddling, and aggression calculated from data collected from three macaque species through two sampling methods: focal animal sampling (FAS) and all-occurrences behaviour sampling (ABS).

Interactive bioacoustic playback as a tool for detecting and exploring nonhuman intelligence: "conversing" with an Alaskan humpback whale.

Here we report on a rare and opportunistic acoustic turn-taking with an adult female humpback whale, known as Twain, in Southeast Alaska. acoustic and statistical analyses of a 20-min acoustic exchange between the broadcast of a recorded contact call, known as a 'whup/throp', with call responses by Twain revealed an intentional human-whale acoustic (and behavioral) interaction. Our results show that Twain participated both physically and acoustically in three phases of interaction (Phase 1: Engagement, Phase 2: Agitation, Phase 3: Disengagement), independently determined by blind observers reporting on surface behavior and respiratory activity of the interacting whale.

Hair and plasma cortisol throughout the first 3 years of development in infant rhesus macaques, Macaca mulatta.

Cortisol expression has been demonstrated to have variation across development in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). There exists contradictory evidence for the nature of this change, and age at which it occurs, across biological sample types. Consequently, we lack a cohesive understanding for cortisol concentrations across the development of a major human health translational model.

Rhesus macaque social functioning is paternally, but not maternally, inherited by sons: potential implications for autism.

Background: Quantitative autistic traits are common, heritable, and continuously distributed across the general human population. Patterns of autistic traits within families suggest that more complex mechanisms than simple Mendelian inheritance-in particular, parent of origin effects-may be involved. The ideal strategy for ascertaining parent of origin effects is by half-sibling analysis, where half-siblings share one, but not both, parents and each individual belongs to a unique combination of paternal and maternal half-siblings.

Female social structure influences, and is influenced by, male introduction and integration success among captive rhesus macaques ().

Animal social structure is influenced by multiple socioecological factors. Of these, the links between changes to group demography through the arrival of new individuals and residents' social structure remain unclear. Across seven groups of captive rhesus macaques (), we examine how male introductions may be influenced by, and in-turn influence, aspects of female social structure.

Impact of joint interactions with humans and social interactions with conspecifics on the risk of zooanthroponotic outbreaks among wildlife populations.

Pandemics caused by pathogens that originate in wildlife highlight the importance of understanding the behavioral ecology of disease outbreaks at human-wildlife interfaces. Specifically, the relative effects of human-wildlife and wildlife-wildlife interactions on disease outbreaks among wildlife populations in urban and peri-urban environments remain unclear. We used social network analysis and epidemiological Susceptible-Infected-Recovered models to simulate zooanthroponotic outbreaks, through wild animals' joint propensities to co-interact with humans, and their social grooming of conspecifics.

Measuring dominance certainty and assessing its impact on individual and societal health in a nonhuman primate model: a network approach.

The notion of dominance is ubiquitous across the animal kingdom, wherein some species/groups such relationships are strictly hierarchical and others are not. Modern approaches for measuring dominance have emerged in recent years taking advantage of increased computational power. One such technique, named Percolation and Conductance (Perc), uses both direct and indirect information about the flow of dominance relationships to generate hierarchical rank order that makes no assumptions about the linearity of these relationships.

Sex Differences in Hierarchical Stability in a Formation of a Mixed-sex Group of Rhesus Macaques.

Forming groups of captive rhesus macaques is a common management practice. New formations of unfamiliar macaques can be costly, with high levels of trauma, particularly as intense aggression is used to establish a dominance hierarchy. Combining previous subgroups into one new group may be beneficial, as some individuals already have established dominance relationships.

Implementing social network analysis to understand the socioecology of wildlife co-occurrence and joint interactions with humans in anthropogenic environments.

Human population expansion into wildlife habitats has increased interest in the behavioural ecology of human-wildlife interactions. To date, however, the socioecological factors that determine whether, when or where wild animals take risks by interacting with humans and anthropogenic factors still remains unclear. We adopt a comparative approach to address this gap, using social network analysis (SNA).

Factors influencing the success of male introductions into groups of female rhesus macaques: Introduction technique, male characteristics and female behavior.

In captive populations of rhesus macaques, novel adult males are commonly introduced to female groups every few years to prevent inbreeding, which mimics male dispersal in wild macaque populations. However, introducing adult males is challenging because macaques are aggressive to newcomers, which can result in serious injuries. Efforts to reduce trauma risk during the introduction process and increase the probability of success are needed.

Monkey's Social Roles Predict Their Affective Reactivity.

Accumulating evidence demonstrates that the number of social connections an individual has predicts health and wellbeing outcomes in people and nonhuman animals. In this report, we investigate the relationship between features of an individuals' role within his social network and affective reactivity to ostensibly threatening stimuli, using a highly translatable animal model - rhesus monkeys. Features of the social network were quantified via observations of one large (0.

Recommendations for Abnormal Behaviour Ethograms in Monkey Research.

Laboratory monkey ethograms currently include subcategories of abnormal behaviours that are based on superficial morphological similarity. Yet, such ethograms may be misclassifying behaviour, with potential welfare implications as different abnormal behaviours are likely to have distinct risk factors and treatments. We therefore investigated the convergent validity of four hypothesized subcategories of abnormal behaviours ('motor', e.

Impact of individual demographic and social factors on human-wildlife interactions: a comparative study of three macaque species.

Despite increasing conflict at human-wildlife interfaces, there exists little research on how the attributes and behavior of individual wild animals may influence human-wildlife interactions. Adopting a comparative approach, we examined the impact of animals' life-history and social attributes on interactions between humans and (peri)urban macaques in Asia. For 10 groups of rhesus, long-tailed, and bonnet macaques, we collected social behavior, spatial data, and human-interaction data for 11-20 months on pre-identified individuals.

Improved behavioral indices of welfare in continuous compared to intermittent pair-housing in adult female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta).

Limiting opportunities for captive nonhuman primates (NHPs) to express species-specific social behaviors may disrupt the adaptive drive for social companionship and may lead to increases in coping behaviors and inactivity. While captive NHPs show improved welfare when moving to pair-housing from single-housing, the impact of daily separation of pair-mates, as is implemented in intermittent pair-housing, is not fully understood. We compared behavioral indices of welfare exhibited by adult female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) in two conditions: (1) intermittent pair-housing, involving daily overnight separation of pair-mates, and (2) continuous pair-housing, involving little separation of pair-mates.

A Psychometrically Robust Screening Tool To Rapidly Identify Socially Impaired Monkeys In The General Population.

Naturally low-social rhesus macaques exhibit social impairments with direct relevance to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To more efficiently identify low-social individuals in a large colony, we exploited, refined, and psychometrically assessed the macaque Social Responsiveness Scale (mSRS), an instrument previously derived from the human ASD screening tool. We performed quantitative social behavior assessments and mSRS ratings on a total of N = 349 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) housed in large, outdoor corrals.

A multiplex centrality metric for complex social networks: sex, social status, and family structure predict multiplex centrality in rhesus macaques.

Members of a society interact using a variety of social behaviors, giving rise to a multi-faceted and complex social life. For the study of animal behavior, quantifying this complexity is critical for understanding the impact of social life on animals' health and fitness. Multilayer network approaches, where each interaction type represents a different layer of the social network, have the potential to better capture this complexity than single layer approaches.

Impact of anthropogenic factors on affiliative behaviors among bonnet macaques.

Objectives: In primates, allogrooming and other affiliative behaviors confer many benefits and may be influenced by many socioecological factors. Of these, the impact of anthropogenic factors remain relatively understudied. Here we ask whether interactions with humans decreased macaques' affiliative behaviors by imposing time-constraints, or increased these behaviors on account of more free-/available-time due to macaques' consumption of high-energy human foods.

Sex differences in the impact of social status on hair cortisol concentrations in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta).

Social status impacts stress in primates, but the direction of the effect differs depending on species, social style, and group stability. This complicates our ability to identify broadly applicable principles for understanding how social status impacts health and fitness. One reason for this is the fact that social status is often measured as linear dominance rank, yet social status is more complex than simply high or low rank.

High rates of aggression do not predict rates of trauma in captive groups of macaques.

Socially inflicted traumas are a major concern for the management of captive groups of rhesus macaques. Rhesus macaques are the most commonly used nonhuman primate in biomedical research, and social housing is optimal for promoting psychological well-being. However, trauma is frequent due to a strong reliance on aggression to establish and maintain hierarchical relationships.