Social influences on grooming site preferences among captive long-tailed macaques

Abstract

Data on grooming in a colony of 38 captive Macaca fascicularis were collected over a period of 6 months. The goal was to investigate how five social parameters (age, kinship, sex, grooming frequency, and relative rank) influenced the choice of body part being groomed. Age and kinship did not have systematic effects of grooming site preferences. The sex composition of individual dyads and the frequency at which grooming occurred were the factors with the greatest effect on body sites groomed among adults. Relative to other dyad types, male-male dyads almost never groomed on the face, avoided the front side of the trunk, and preferred the tail and back. Dyads that groomed relatively infrequently also favored the tail and avoided the face, chest, and belly. Relative rank had an effect on the body sites groomed among adult females: a groomer ranking lower than her partner groomed more often on the face, chest, and belly than a groomer ranking higher than her partner. Several hypotheses are discussed in the context of these results. The only one that explains most of the major results is that recipients of grooming expose relatively invulnerable parts of their bodies (i.e., back and tail) to and avoid eye contact with groomers that are relatively dangerous.