Observations of dead infant carrying have been reported for many primate species, and researchers have proposed several hypotheses to explain this behaviour. However, despite being a relatively well-studied species, reports of dead infant carrying in wild vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) remain scarce. Here we report 14 observations of dead infant carrying by female vervet monkeys in a population at Mawana Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntersexual dominance relations are important for female mammals, because of their consequences for accessing food and for the degree of sexual control females experience from males. Female mammals are usually considered to rank below males in the dominance hierarchy, because of their typical physical inferiority. Yet, in some groups or species, females are nonetheless dominant over some males (partial female dominance).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBy studying the behavior of nonhuman primates, particularly in wild settings, researchers have been able to investigate a range of cognitive abilities, shedding light on the evolution of certain aspects of cognition and revealing potential evolutionary precursors of many capacities considered uniquely human. Vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) have been widely investigated due to their prevalence and their suitability for experimental testing in the wild with an ecologically valid approach that is not possible with many other primates, especially apes. Here we review advances in the understanding of a number of cognitive and behavioral processes that have been gleaned from studies conducted with wild vervet monkeys over the past half century, primarily focusing on social cognitive abilities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe concept of directed social learning predicts that social learning opportunities for an individual will depend on social dynamics, context and demonstrator identity. However, few empirical studies have examined social attention biases in animal groups. Sex-based and kinship-based biases in social learning and social attention towards females have been shown in a despotic and female philopatric primate: the vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhilst the ability to follow human gaze has been demonstrated in monkeys and apes, there is little evidence that prosimians share this ability. The current study used a food choice paradigm to assess whether captive brown (Eulemur fulvus) and ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) use human gaze direction as a cue when choosing between an attending or non-attending human. Four experiments assessed the use of body, head and eye cues by the lemurs.
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