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The development of self-biting behavior in captive monkeys is little understood and poses a serious risk to their well-being. Although early rearing conditions may influence the expression of this behavior, not all animals reared under similar conditions self-bite. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of three rearing conditions on biting behavior and to determine whether early infant behavior can predict later self-biting. The subjects were 370 rhesus macaques born at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Animal Center between 1994 and 2004. They were reared under three conditions: mother-reared in social groups (n=183), peer-reared in groups of four (n=84), and surrogate-peer-reared (n=103). Significantly more surrogate-peer-reared animals self-bit compared to peer-only or mother-reared animals. There was no sex difference in self-biting, but this result may have been affected by a sex bias in the number of observations. The durations of behaviors exhibited by the surrogate-peer-reared subjects were recorded in 5-min sessions twice a week from 2 to 6 months of age while the animals were in their home cages and play groups. In the play-group situation, surrogate-peer-reared subjects who later self-bit were found to be less social and exhibited less social clinging than those that did not self-bite. Home-cage behavior did not predict later self-biting, but it did change with increasing age: surrogate clinging and self-mouthing decreased, while environmental exploration increased. Our findings suggest that surrogate rearing in combination with lower levels of social contact during play may be risk factors for the later development of self-biting behavior.
Am J Primatol 2007 May
PMID:Early predictors of self-biting in socially-housed rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). 1721 20

In Experiment 1, three capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) were exposed to a mirror in their home cage for 3 days and then given food treats for touching orange marks located on the surface of an experimental chamber. Following training, a mirror was added to the chamber to see if the monkeys would use it to guide non-reinforced contacts with an orange mark on their foreheads that was only visible as a mirror reflection (mark test). Two monkeys touched the head-mark more often with the mirror present than absent, but no mark touches were emitted while looking at the mirror. In Experiment 2, the monkeys were rewarded for touching orange marks on their bodies that were directly visible, followed by another head-mark test. Again, two monkeys touched the mark more often with the mirror present than absent, but these contacts were not emitted while looking at the mirror. Since facing the mirror while mark touching was not required for reinforcement during training, Experiment 3 further tested the possibility that increased mark touching in the presence of the mirror during Experiments 1 and 2 was the result of a memorial process. For this, a final, novel mark test was conducted using an orange mark on the neck that was only visible as a reflection (Experiment 3). No monkeys passed this test. These are the first mark tests given to capuchin monkeys. The results are consistent with the finding that no monkey species is capable of spontaneous mirror self-recognition. The implications of sequential training and mark testing for comparative evaluations of mirror self-recognition capacity are discussed.
Am J Primatol 2007 Sep
PMID:Mark tests for mirror self-recognition in capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) trained to touch marks. 1725 35

Callithrix jacchus infants are raised in complex family environments where most members participate in rearing the young. Many studies examining male parental behavior have focused on the carrying of infants with observations made within the family context. However, interference from family members can make it difficult to assess the father's motivation to care for infants. Our goals were to develop a testing paradigm for determining an individual's response to infant stimuli separate from family influences, compare a male's motivation to respond to an infant stimulus outside the family with his paternal behavior within the family, to compare responses to infant stimuli of parentally experienced versus inexperienced males and finally to develop a reproducible and standardized method of testing male responsiveness to infant stimulus that could serve to evaluate hormonal manipulations. Fifteen experienced common marmoset fathers were evaluated using three different measures of parental behavior: (1) instantaneous scan sampling, (2) continuous focal sampling in the family, and (3) continuous focal sampling of males presented with four infant stimuli: familiar and unfamiliar infants, familiar and unfamiliar infant vocalizations. Six parentally inexperienced males (non-fathers) served as controls. Males that carried the most in the family were typically the same males that responded most to the infant vocalization tests. Experienced fathers did not differ in their latency to enter the stimulus cage for any of the four infant stimuli response tests while inexperienced males took significantly longer to enter the stimulus cage. In addition, fathers expressed a greater frequency of infant-directed behavior than did the inexperienced males during the unfamiliar infant and unfamiliar vocalization tests. These studies show that experienced male marmosets are highly motivated to interact with infant stimuli and that there is interindividual variability in response to infant vocalizations. Testing males outside of the family allows for a clear assessment of male's interest in infant stimuli in both parentally experienced fathers and inexperienced males.
Am J Primatol 2008 Jan
PMID:Male parenting and response to infant stimuli in the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus). 1760 1

Food intake is difficult to estimate under natural conditions. We investigated ingestion rates of 14 different food types in 26 captive capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). The procedure consisted in weighing a piece of food and using a two alternative choice tests to present food to the subject, alone in its cage. We recorded the food chosen and the time it took the subject to consume the food entirely. Consumption time was converted into ingestion rates (g/s) for each food type. Ingestion rates of food types significantly differed, and the difference was significantly higher among foods than among subjects. In particular, ingestion rates of the fruits were higher than those of human-processed food. Interestingly, food preferences were significantly related to energy intake rate, i.e., to the amount of energy ingested per unit of time, but not with ingestion rates or energy content alone. The energy acquired by eating different types of food cannot be calculated on the basis of the time spent eating unless a correction factor for each given food (or similar ones) is applied. Future controlled studies should provide field researchers with such corrections factors, possibly using foods collected in the wild.
Am J Primatol 2008 May
PMID:An experimental analysis of ingestion rates in an omnivorous species. 1818 73

We examined the ability of capuchin monkeys to use video without immediate visual-kinaesthetic feedback as a source of information to guide their action in the 3-dimensional world. In experiment 1, 2 capuchins learned to retrieve food under 1 of 2 different objects in 1 cage after watching the experimenter hiding food under 1 of 2 replica objects while in another cage. Information space and retrieval space were thus separate. The performance criterion was 71% first correct choices in blocks of 24 trials. However, when the subjects watched prerecorded videos of the hiding events, they chose randomly. In experiment 2, we gave the capuchins further trials with video and we enhanced the object shapes by line drawings. One capuchin eventually learned to use the video clips to locate food and he generalized this learning to 2 new objects.
Folia Primatol (Basel) 2010
PMID:A capuchin monkey (Cebus apella) uses video to find food. 2035 74

Studies of the shoulder girdle are in most cases restricted to morphological comparisons and rarely aim at elucidating function in a strictly biomechanical sense. To fill this gap, we investigated the basic functional conditions that occur in the shoulder joint and shoulder girdle of primates by means of mechanics. Because most of nonhuman primate locomotion is essentially quadrupedal walking-although on very variable substrates-our analysis started with quadrupedal postures. We identified the mechanical situation at the beginning, middle, and end of the load-bearing stance phase by constructing force parallelograms in the shoulder joint and the scapulo-thoracal connection. The resulting postulates concerning muscle activities are in agreement with electromyographical data in the literature. We determined the magnitude and directions of the internal forces and explored mechanically optimal shapes of proximal humerus, scapula, and clavicula using the Finite Element Method. Next we considered mechanical functions other than quadrupedal walking, such as suspension and brachiation. Quadrupedal walking entails muscle activities and joint forces that require a long scapula, the cranial margin of which has about the same length as the axillary margin. Loading of the hand in positions above the head and suspensory behaviors lead to force flows along the axillary margin and so necessitate a scapula with an extended axillary and a shorter cranial margin. In all cases, the facies glenoidalis is nearly normal to the calculated joint forces. In anterior view, terrestrial monkeys chose a direction of the ground reaction force requiring (moderate) activity of the abductors of the shoulder joint, whereas more arboreal monkeys prefer postures that necessitate activity of the adductors of the forelimb even when walking along branches. The same adducting and retracting muscles are recruited in various forms of suspension. As a mechanical consequence, the scapula is in a more frontal, rather than parasagittal, position on the thorax. In both forms of locomotion-quadrupedal walking and suspension-the compression-resistant clavicula contributes to keeping the shoulder complex distant from the rib cage. Future studies should consider the consequences for thorax shape. The morphological specializations of all Hominoidea match the functional requirements of suspensory behavior. The knowledge of mechanical functions allows an improved interpretation of fossils beyond morphological similarity.
Int J Primatol 2010 Apr
PMID:Functional Analysis of the Primate Shoulder. 2049 2

In South Africa, the most common primate in rehabilitation centres is the vervet monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops). Here we evaluated the efficacy of releasing two vervet monkey troops into the wild, using the standard methods employed by an established rehabilitation centre. Two troops were assembled over 2-3 years. Coloured ear tags identified adults, subadults and juveniles. Radiocollars were placed on all the adults and subadults of both troops (41% of all individuals). Each troop was released at a suitable site after 2 nights in a holding cage, and supplementary food was provided for 2 months after release. For 10 months, locations of both troops were recorded, as well as the presence/absence of individuals and their general behaviour. The smaller troop survived better than the larger troop, with only 6 of 35 individuals (17%) confirmed alive in the large troop compared with 12 of 24 (50%) in the small troop. Large numbers of missing monkeys make it difficult to determine whether the release was a success. However, results suggest that rehabilitated vervet monkeys could be successfully released in the future. Recommendations are provided for consideration in future releases.
Folia Primatol (Basel) 2010 Aug
PMID:Postrelease success of two rehabilitated vervet monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops) troops in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. 2066 87

The California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC) houses more than 1,000 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) of mixed Chinese-Indian ancestry. Most of these animals are kept in outdoor field cages, the colony's long term breeding resource. Since 2001, hybrids comprised between 4 and 49% of the field cage populations, but in most cases have represented a maximum of 10% of those populations. The increasing prevalence of hybrids is partly due to management efforts to distribute genetic diversity effectively and minimize genetic subdivisions. However, other factors may also contribute to the spread of hybrids within the colony, most notably variance in socio-sexual behaviors and physical attributes. It is known that hybrids of some species exhibit heterosis, such as early maturation, that can enhance reproductive success, and anecdotal observations of mixed groups of hybrid, Indian and Chinese animals at the CNPRC suggest that hybrids are more sexually active. To determine whether hybrids experienced a reproductive advantage, a study was conducted using birth records of 5,611 offspring born in the CNPRC colony between 2003 and 2009. We found that while the degree of Chinese ancestry (DCA) appeared to influence the maturational schedule of both males and females (maturation was inversely related to proportion of Chinese ancestry), DCA had no independent effect on either male or female RS or rank. Therefore, we have found no evidence that a hybrid phenotype confers an absolute reproductive advantage in our colony.
Am J Primatol 2011 Jul
PMID:Association between hybrid status and reproductive success of captive male and female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) at the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC). 2143 46

Although primates have remarkable olfactory capabilities, their ability for olfactory predator recognition is still understudied. We investigated this cognitive ability in wild gray and golden-brown mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus and M. ravelobensis) that were confronted with four different olfactory stimuli, derived from two Malagasy predators (fossa and barn owl) and two local nonpredator species (brown lemur and sifaka). The predator response was tested (1) in a systematic cage setup and (2) in a two-way choice experiment with two Sherman traps on platforms in the forest (stimulus trap vs. nonstimulus trap). For part 1, the study animals were housed in cages during habituation and 5 days of experiments. One stimulus was tested per night and was presented underneath a drinking bottle. The changes in the time spent close to the stimulus and the drinking time at the bottle were used as indicators of predator recognition. A timidity score was established by classifying the strength of the antipredator response during the experiment. The study animals spent significantly less time drinking and less time in the stimulus area when confronted with fossa odor compared with the other stimuli. The timidity score was significantly higher during the fossa stimulus compared with the nonpredator and the control stimuli. The two-way choice experiments revealed a complete avoidance of the fossa odor, which was not found with the other stimuli. Thus, wild mouse lemurs showed clear signs of olfactory predator recognition in the case of the fossa in both experiments, but no signs of avoidance to the other presented stimuli. The lack of owl avoidance may be explained by less or no aversive metabolites in the owl stimulus or by lower significance for olfactory recognition of aerial predators. Furthermore, the results showed slight differences between the two mouse lemur species that may be linked to differences in their ecology.
Am J Primatol 2011 Sep
PMID:Experimental evidence for olfactory predator recognition in wild mouse lemurs. 2155 86

Research in stress physiology has demonstrated the benefits of receiving social support during stressful conditions. However, recent data have shown that the efficacy of social support in buffering physiological and behavioral responses to stressor agents depends on species, sex, and relatedness among animals. This study investigated whether different kinds of social support (presence of same sex related or nonrelated conspecifics) have the same effect on hormonal (fecal cortisol levels) and behavioral responses (agonistic: scent-marking and individual piloerection; anxiety: locomotion; tension-reducing: autogrooming, allogrooming, and body contact). We used adult male and female isosexual dyads of Callithrix jacchus, a small Neotropical primate from the Callitrichidae family, widely used in the study of stress and related diseases. Following a 28-day baseline phase, dyads faced three challenging situations (phase 1: dyads were moved together from the baseline cage to a similar new cage; phase 2: each dyad member was moved alone to a new cage; and phase 3: dyad members were reunited in the same baseline cage). Type of social support was found to influence the response to stressors differently for each sex. Related male dyads did not change their hormonal or behavioral profile over the three experimental phases, when compared to the baseline phase. For nonrelated male dyads, social support buffered hormonal but not behavioral response. For females, the social support offered by a related and nonrelated animal, does not seem to buffer the stress response, as shown by correlations between agonistic behaviors versus cortisol and locomotion during all three experimental phases and a significant increase in fecal cortisol levels during phases 2 and 3, when compared with baseline levels. The results only partially support the buffering model theory and corroborate other studies reporting that the benefits of social support during a period of crisis arise only when it is adaptive for that species.
Am J Primatol 2012 Sep
PMID:The influence of sex and relatedness on stress response in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). 2254 57


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