Redirected Aggression and Reconciliation Among Vervet Monkeys, Cercopithecus Aethiops

Abstract

Among both kin and nonkin, opponents were significantly more likely to threaten their opponents' relatives following a fight than during matched-control periods (simple redirected aggression). Similarly, the relatives of two opponents were more likely to threaten each other following a fight than during matched-control periods (complex redirected aggression). Finally, the relatives of two opponents were more likely to interact affinitively following a fight than in the period preceding it (complex reconciliation). Reconciliation among related and unrelated opponents differed in the following respects. When kin fought, a much higher proportion of fights was followed by affinitive behavior, either between the opponents themselves (direct reconciliation) or between one opponent and the kin of another (simple reconciliation). Relatively high frequencies of reconciliation among kin, however, were apparently just a consequence of frequent overall affinitive interactions: when behavior during post-conflict periods was compared with behavior during matched-control periods, direct and simple reconciliation was more common among nonkin than among kin. Nonkin also differed from kin in whom they reconciled with. Kin were equally likely to reconcile with their opponents and their opponents' kin. In contrast, nonkin reconciled more often with their opponents' kin than with their opponents themselves.