Self and Social Grooming in Stump-Tailed Macaques: Effects of Kin Presence or Absence within the Group

Abstract

The relation between individual self and social-grooming scores, asaessingthe effects of having or lacking relatives within the group, was studied in a colony of stump-tailed macaques (Macacaarctoides). As it has been shown by other authors, kinship favoured grooming interactions, so animals lacking relatives wen seldom mom as groomees. Conversely, these subjects accounted for the major mounts of self-grooming, as if they were surmounting the social grooming deficit. This negative relationship between self and social grooming suggests a common functional relationship between both forms of behavior, most likely as a reducing tension activity.