Behavior Systems Approach to Object Play: Stone Handling Repertoire as a Measure of Propensity for Complex Foraging and Percussive Tool Use in the Genus Macaca

Amanda N Pelletier,Tatjana Kaufmann,Michael A Huffman,Riane Milan,Aida Rompis,I Nengah Wandia,Sidhesh Mohak,Sergio M Pellis,I Gusti Agung Arta Putra,Noëlle Gunst,Charmalie A D Nahallage,Jean-Baptiste Leca

doi:10.26451/abc.04.04.05.201

Abstract

Behavior Systems Approach to Object Play: Stone Handling Repertoire as a Measure of Propensity for Complex Foraging and Percussive Tool Use in the Genus Macaca

Highlights

Stone handling (SH) is one of the few types of object play routinely performed throughout an individual’s lifespan in both captive and free-ranging groups, and has been described in four closely related species of macaques: Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), rhesus macaques (M. mulatta), longtailed macaques (M. fascicularis), and Taiwanese macaques (M. cyclopis, Nahallage, Leca, & Huffman, 2016)
In line with previous research on Japanese macaques (Leca et al, 2008a), we suggest that SH consists of performing foraging-like actions on non-edible objects because this activity involves motivational processes typically associated with foraging
If SH is most reliably assigned to the foraging behavior system in the long-tailed macaques, and the SH ethograms vary across these three macaque species, one could test whether this variation in object play behavior reflects inter-specific differences in foraging strategies

Summary

Introduction

Stone handling (SH) is one of the few types of object play routinely performed throughout an individual’s lifespan in both captive and free-ranging groups, and has been described in four closely related species of macaques: Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), rhesus macaques (M. mulatta), longtailed macaques (M. fascicularis), and Taiwanese macaques (M. cyclopis, Nahallage, Leca, & Huffman, 2016). In line with previous research on Japanese macaques (Leca et al, 2008a), we suggest that SH consists of performing foraging-like actions on non-edible objects (i.e., stones) because this activity involves motivational processes typically associated with foraging. To explore this hypothesis, we used a “behavior systems” approach. It can be used to decide whether similar behavioral patterns are due to common ancestry or the result of independent adaptations to similar environmental pressures (Martins, 1996) Such a comparative approach should be relevant to understanding the evolution of object play behavior because it can distinguish adaptive from non-adaptive traits by indicating which ones have predated, accompanied, or followed the modification of some of their structural and functional attributes. A higher diversity in percussive SH patterns and more frequent percussive stone-tool using in long-tailed macaques than in the other two macaque species could indicate differential adaptive foraging styles in relation to the behavioral propensity to manipulate stones

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion