The role of acoustic signaling for spacing and group coordination in a nocturnal, pair-living primate, the western woolly lemur (Avahi occidentalis).

Objectives: How social groups govern their distribution in time and space is a central question in socioecology. The aim of this study is to explore the role of acoustic signaling for spacing and cohesiveness in a nocturnal, cohesive, pair-living strepsirrhine.

Material And Methods: The study was conducted in northwestern Madagascar.

Peaceful primates: affiliation, aggression, and the question of female dominance in a nocturnal pair-living lemur (Avahi occidentalis).

Affiliation/agonism and social dominance are central factors determining social organization in primates. The aim of our study is to investigate and describe, for the first time, the intersexual relations in a nocturnal and cohesive pair-living prosimian primate, the western woolly lemur (Avahi occidentalis), and to determine to what extent phylogeny, activity mode, or the cohesiveness of pair partners shape the quality of social interactions. Six pairs of western woolly lemurs were radio-collared in the dry deciduous forest of northwestern Madagascar.