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Improving captive conditions of pygmy slow lorises (Nekaris and Nijman have recently suggested that the pygmy slow loris should be called the pygmy loris and is distinctive enough to warrant a new genus, Xanthonycticebu) (Nycticebus pygmeaus) poses many challenges because detailed aspects of their lives in the wild are incomplete. This hinders efforts to replicate sustainable environments for them. To improve their well‐being in captivity, eight rescued female pygmy slow lorises at the Japan Monkey Center (JMC) were socially housed in two types of groups following their solitary housing: two pairs and one group of four individuals. They spent much of their time in affiliative behaviors, as well as sharing sleeping sites after placement in a social group. The purpose of my study was to examine whether social housing helped in reducing stress by comparing fecal glucocorticoids and stereotypic behaviors when housed alone and when with conspecifics. Overall, the levels of fecal glucocorticoids were significantly lower when socially housed than when kept alone. One individual exhibited stereotypic behavior when housed alone, but this behavior disappeared after social housing. These findings support recent evidence that pygmy slow lorises are social animals and will benefit from group housing in captivity. We conclude that social housing of pygmy slow lorises improves their well‐being by reducing stress levels, and that their group housing in captivity can provide dividends for the conservation of this endangered nocturnal primate because lorises intended for release should find it easier to adapt to natural conditions. Research Highlights: Female pygmy slow lorises were found to have lower levels of fecal cortisol once socially housed. A female that engaged in stereotypic behavior was found to have higher fecal cortisol levels than the rest when singly housed, but the behavior stopped once socially housed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Giraffe herds have been characterized as random associations of individuals, but recent evidence suggests giraffe have a more complex social structure. The authors formulated 3 hypotheses designed to evaluate whether a herd of captive giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) associated randomly or patterned their behavior and proximity in a manner indicative of social relationships. Affiliative interaction, proximity, and nearest neighbors for 6 captive female giraffe living in a large outdoor enclosure were analyzed, and all three measures were nonrandomly distributed, indicating female giraffe had social preferences. Furthermore, preferences were consistent across measures and time, suggesting that adult female giraffe maintain relationships. Mother--daughter pairs and pairs with large age differences between members interacted and associated most often. The social structure of this captive herd is influenced by social relationships between individual adult females, and the social behavior of individual females should be examined more closely in the wild. Keywords: social preference, ungulate, matrix correlation, relationship, symmetry

Tetanus was first described in the rhesus monkeys (Macaca multta) of Cayo Santiago, and a sample collected in 2004 of the original cohort of monkeys immunized in 1985 and 1986 showed that 14 out of 15 (93.3%) had protective tetanus antibody tilters at the ages of 20-23 years. Two intramuscular doses of tetanus toxoid provided long-term, if not life-long, protection against tetanus for rhesus monkeys, living in a tropical climate where tetanus was enzootic and the risk of infection was great.

Research investigates the occurrence of multiple sirehood in free-ranging twin rhesus macaques, in which females copulate with three males during each reproductive cycle. Data indicate that one set of free ranging rhesus, out of five tested, bore multiple sires as shown by short tandem repeat genotyping.

Improving captive environments for primates has been an important tool to enhance animal welfare. One method has been to provide primates with naturalistic vegetated enclosures to promote species‐specific behaviors, enhancing interactions with their social and natural environment, such as an increase in feeding, foraging, and positive social behaviors such as play. To investigate the benefits in which living in naturalistic environments promote general animal well‐being, we observed immature and adult males living in two outdoor housed groups of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) in the Kyoto University Primate Research Institute (KUPRI), Inuyama, Japan, from June of 2015 until June 2016. One enclosure was naturally vegetated and the other was not. We recorded male activity budgets, affiliative (groom, play) behaviors, and rates of agonistic interactions. To examine health status, we recorded and compared coat conditions for both groups. We found that males in the vegetated enclosure spent more time in social play than males in the non‐vegetated enclosure, while males in the non‐vegetated enclosure displayed more stereotypic behaviors and agonistic interactions. We recorded better coat conditions in the vegetated enclosure males while rates of social grooming or self‐grooming were no different between males in the two enclosures. The males in the vegetated enclosure did not have activity budgets more similar to their wild counterparts; but they spent more time in feeding‐related activities and less time resting, which was more similar to their wild counterparts than males in the non‐vegetated enclosure. Our findings suggest that individuals housed in naturalistic environments have significantly greater behavioral and physical markers of wellbeing than those housed in unnatural, large outdoor enclosures. Although we found that males in both types of enclosures overall had similar time budgets to males in the wild, the detailed behavioral and health results suggest that the welfare benefits to males were greater in the vegetated enclosure, compared with non‐vegetated enclosures. Efforts to mimic more natural environments should promote the well‐being of primates. Highlights: Male monkeys living in enriched vegetated enclosures had better coat conditions and positive social behaviors such as play while monkeys living in non‐vegetated enclosures displayed more stereotypic behaviors and agonistic interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In baboons, female choice is not restricted either by female competition or by male sexual subjugation and mount rejection by females does not obstruct male ejaculation or result in male abandonment. Female reproductive techniques are possibly designed to facilitate mating with multiple males so as to increase the probability that a minimum of one male will form an affiliative bond with her offspring. The competition costs by males for females who like them as mates can be overcome by the benefit of enhanced consortship duration by female cooperation.

A study of the endocrinal response of macaques to stressful situations reveals that vocal response and cortisol concentrations are not necessarily linked by a causal connection. The stresses applied were capture, staring at the subject's own elephant and staring at another's infant. A control group with cortisol suppressed was used. Vocal alarms varied with the threat applied, with some reduction in the response of the female macaques with suppressed cortisol levels.

Giraffes live in a fission-fusion society (Bercovitch & Berry, 2012; Carter et al., 2013), with adult males often solitary, moving among female herds as a roaming reproductive strategy to assess female reproductive status (Bercovitch et al., 2006; Dagg, 2014). Actual values of hormone metabolite concentrations are only added for the female and the "winning" bull (M5) gl On day 6 M5 joined the herd and approached F19. We also observed F19 neck rubbing against M4's hindquarters, an affiliative giraffe behaviour (see Table 1 for daily descriptions of behaviours). Afterwards, M5 began mate guarding and cofeeding with F19, and several hours after the fight M5 started bumping into F19 and tapping against her hind legs using his front leg, a bull giraffe courtship activity. [Extracted from the article]

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The validity of the Bercovitch-McMillan is defended because of the unnecessary inclusion of male subadults that lead to inflated correlation coefficients. Actually, a re-analysis of the data shows the strength of the said hypothesis, and the misleading results are the product of Type I error. Moreover, in primates, dominance rank is not significantly correlated with reproductive success within the adult male age class.