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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.

Social parasitism is well known in ants, but many aspects of this social phenomenon remain mysterious and unexplored. In some cases, parasite queens, who are able to mate very rarely end up producing brood and, thus, depend virtually on the labor of host ants. In this work, we sought to test the occurrence of grooming by host workers of Acromyrmex subterraneus subterraneus Forel, to their own queens and queens of the parasite Acromyrmex ameliae De Souza, Soares and Della Lucia and to compare the immune defense responses of parasite queens and queens of A. subterraneus subterraneus and Acromyrmex subterraneus brunneus Forel, the natural hosts. Duration and frequency of behavioral acts were recorded. The relative size of the bulla and the encapsulation response to a standardized antigen were analyzed. Regarding behavioral acts, self-grooming (duration and frequency) and allogrooming (duration) were statistically different between the species; the first is more frequent and lasted longer in parasite queens, while the second act lasted longer in host ants than in parasite ants. The bulla of A. ameliae was approximately 50% wider than those of its hosts. Parasite queens exhibited a stronger immune response than host queens. The results of this work contribute to elucidate potential mechanisms involved in the parasitism capacity of A. ameliae queens such as their strategies of immune defense.

Allogrooming, where an individual grooms another, has been extensively studied in various social animals to understand its role in the evolution of cooperation/prosociality. In existing studies in mammals, allogrooming has been suggested to exhibit not only a hygiene but also a social function. Allopreening, a topic of increasing interest in mammals but recently also in birds, has been studied mostly with mature animals. However, in some species immature individuals also show allopreening and its function remains poorly understood. Crows, Corvus spp., are an ideal model to study this phenomenon, because juveniles form year‐round aggregates during their long juvenile stage (e.g., throughout 3–4 years). Here, we investigated the function of allopreening in juvenile groups of wild‐caught large‐billed crows (C. macrorhynchos). Allopreening frequency and duration for three groups of wild‐caught juveniles were analysed to determine whether there was a symmetrical (i.e., reciprocal) or asymmetrical allopreening pattern, and if sex composition of the dyad and/or relative dominance of donor and recipient had an effect. We found that both the frequency and duration of male allopreening correlated with frequency of aggression. Allopreening between both males and females occurred unidirectionally from dominants to subordinates but not in the opposite direction. On the contrary, allopreening between a male and a female was found to be reciprocated, though the absolute frequency and duration were both greater in males than in females. These results suggest that the social function of allopreening in juvenile crows differs depending on the sex composition of the dyad, functioning as a dominance signal for same‐sex dyads, and serving a social bonding function for opposite‐sex dyads. These findings may reflect the potentially crucial roles of allopreening in within‐sex competition and opposite‐sex attraction during the 3 year‐long juvenile stage affecting future mate choice in lifelong monogamy.

Since 2008 Javan Gibbon’s ( Hylobates moloch ) status is endangered due to the capture of gibbons in the wild to be used as pets which are increasingly prevalent. Conservation efforts of Javan Gibbon population have been conducted at the rescue populations of Javan Gibbons in Javan Gibbon Centre (JGC). Javan Gibbon are the result of voluntary surrender of the community and confiscation of quarantine officer. Rehabilitation in JGC aims to restore the wild instincts of Javan Gibbon before being release d in to the wild environment . This study aimed to identify the daily activities and behavior patterns of Javan gibbon pair and to analyze the abiotic factors that influence them in Javan Gibbon Centre (JGC) as one aspect of the ir readiness to be release d into the wild environment . The study focused on three pairs of Javan Gibbons namely Boby-Jolly, Willie-Sasa , and Asep-Dompu. Based on the observation of three pair s of Javan gibbon, rest ing is the most dominant activity with the percentage of 60 - 80% followed by traveling (8 - 20%), feeding (7 - 13%), social (0 - 4%) , and aggressive behavior (

Advances in individual marking methods have facilitated detailed studies of animal populations and behavior as they allow tracking of individuals through time and space. Hemimetabolous insects, representing a wide range of commonly used model organisms, present a unique challenge to individual marking as they are not only generally small‐bodied, but also molt throughout development, meaning that traditional surface marks are not persistent.Visible implant elastomer (VIE) offers a potential solution as small amounts of the inert polymer can be implanted under the skin or cuticle of an animal. VIE has proved useful for individually marking fish, crustaceans, and amphibians in both field and laboratory studies and has recently been successfully trialed in laboratory populations of worms and fly larvae. We trialed VIE in the single‐piece nesting termite Zootermopsis angusticollis, a small hemimetabolous insect.We found that there was no effect of VIE on survival and that marks persisted following molting. However, we found some evidence that marked termites performed less allogrooming and trophallaxis than controls, although effect sizes were very small.Our study suggests that VIE is an effective technique for marking small hemimetabolous insects like termites but we advocate that caution is applied, particularly when behavioral observation is important., Marking individuals allows detailed studies of behavior and life history, but permanently marking individuals in species that undergo molts is notoriously difficult. Here we use visible implant elastomer (VIE) to mark individuals in a species of termite, Zootermopsis angusticollis. We show that marking using VIE has little effect on survival or behavior and, importantly, VIE marks persist through molts.

Stable social bonds in group-living animals can provide greater access to food. A striking example is that female vampire bats often regurgitate blood to socially bonded kin and nonkin that failed in their nightly hunt. Food-sharing relationships form via preferred associations and social grooming within roosts. However, it remains unclear whether these cooperative relationships extend beyond the roost. To evaluate if long-term cooperative relationships in vampire bats play a role in foraging, we tested if foraging encounters measured by proximity sensors could be explained by wild roosting proximity, kinship, or rates of co-feeding, social grooming, and food sharing during 21 months in captivity. We assessed evidence for 6 hypothetical scenarios of social foraging, ranging from individual to collective hunting. We found that closely bonded female vampire bats departed their roost separately, but often reunited far outside the roost. Repeating foraging encounters were predicted by within-roost association and histories of cooperation in captivity, even when accounting for kinship. Foraging bats demonstrated both affiliative and competitive interactions with different social calls linked to each interaction type. We suggest that social foraging could have implications for social evolution if “local” within-roost cooperation and “global” outside-roost competition enhances fitness interdependence between frequent roostmates., A combination of captive experiments and proximity sensing in the wild show that social bonds in vampire bats that are typically defined by cooperative interactions within the roost also extend beyond the roost and may provide benefits during foraging.

Many animals become more motivated to interact after a period of isolation. This phenomenon may involve general drives, e.g. for social touch or companionship, as well as drives that are specific to particular peers, and which ultimately serve to reestablish relationships between the individuals. Female degus are known to be affiliative with multiple other individuals, including unrelated and unfamiliar conspecifics, offering an opportunity to study social motivation independent from exclusive pair-bonds or overt, same-sex competition. We attempted to disentangle factors driving peer interaction by examining reunion behavior across several social isolation and separation manipulations. High levels of interaction were observed between adult females who had been separated even without isolation, revealing a drive to re-establish relationships with specific peers. The content of separation-only reunions differed from isolation, with the latter involving more early-session interaction, higher levels of allogrooming before rear-sniffing, and a higher ratio of chitter vocalizations. To assess whether post-isolation behavior was related to stress, we examined reunions following a non-social (footshock) stressor. Like isolation, footshock increased early-session interactions, but did not increase allogrooming before rear-sniffing or chittering, as compared with controls. To test whether separation-only reunion behavior shared qualities with relationship formation, we also examined reunions of new (stranger) dyads. Strangers exhibited higher levels of interaction than cagemates, with particularly high levels of late-session rear-sniffing. Like separation-only reunions, strangers showed more non-chitter vocalizations and lower levels of allogrooming before rear-sniffing. Across experiments, an exploratory clustering method was used to identify vocalizations that differed between conditions. This yielded promising leads for future investigation, including a chaff-type syllable that may have been more common during relationship renewal. Overall, results are consistent with the hypothesis that female degu reunions are supported by both general and peer-stimulus specific drives, expressed through the structure of physical and vocal interactions over time.

Female sea otters become sexually mature at 2–4 years of age. Birth may occur throughout the year with a normal litter size of one. The reproductive cycle (period of gestation and dependency) is ~12 months, so female sea otters are normally either pregnant or caring for a pup. After birth, the female provides the pup with high-fat milk from two mammary glands on the lower abdomen. Female sea otters are income breeders and must feed daily to maintain milk production, although small fat reserves, which develop during gestation, may reduce the need to forage during the initial 3 weeks post partum. Maternal behavior, which is influenced by hormones and sensory cues, manifests as vigilance against abiotic or biotic threats to neonates, allogrooming (pup grooming provided by the female), and nursing. Sea otters often give birth on the surface of the water, so there is an immediate threat to the pup from drowning, hypothermia, and predation. Pups are altricial and dependent on the female for care (nursing and grooming) and protection, although maternal behavior changes in synchrony with the pup’s physical and behavioral development. Neonates sleep and nurse most of the day, but new behaviors, such as transiting (i.e., surface swimming), self-grooming, foraging, and interacting, develop over the first 3 months of life. In response, the female exhibits reduced vigilance and enhanced foraging to support the growing pup’s nutritional needs with both milk and prey. At some point, this energetic demand may exceed the female’s foraging ability and cause a decrease in body condition, which could lead to pup abandonment or early weaning in severe cases. This behavior enables the female to survive and raise future offspring and enhance fitness. As a result, pup survival will vary geographically and annually in synchrony with favorable conditions. After females wean or abandon their pups, mating occurs within a few days to weeks, and the cycle repeats.

Bats spend half of their lifetime roosting, but their behaviour during this state has not been analysed in most species. The analysis of roosting behaviour is crucial to understand many aspects of bat ecology and social dynamics, but it can be hard to do in natural conditions, especially in cave-dwelling bats. In two species of long-nosed bats (Leptonycteris curasoae and L. yerbabuenae), reproductively active males display a unique smearing behaviour and develop an odoriferous dorsal patch during the reproductive season, presumably involved in female mate choice. As a first step to study the smearing behaviour under controlled conditions, in this study, we analysed the roosting behaviour of a captive group of 18 adult individuals (1:1 sex ratio) of L. curasoae through analysis of day-round (24 hrs) video recordings. We succeeded in producing an ethogram and in estimating the daily time budgets of the group. We also examined the effect of sex and condition of males (with dorsal patch, without dorsal patch) on behaviour. We identified 18 behaviours and classified them into five first-order categories (general maintenance, locomotion, vigilance, social and sexual) and two behavioural states (resting and self-grooming). Behaviours related to muscle and fur maintenance were the most frequent (wing stretching and self-grooming, respectively). Social behaviours (allogrooming and pushing) were relatively infrequent. The latter result suggests loose or cryptic inter-individual liaisons, probably associated with the natural dynamics of colony composition. The main difference between males and females was the expression of hugs (male to female), suggesting that this could be a sexual behaviour (pre-copulatory or pair-bonding). The behaviour of males was independent of the presence of a dorsal patch. We discuss the need for additional research to find the correlates of dorsal patch activity in order to control these variables in future studies aimed to investigate the smearing behaviour in captivity.

Social grooming in the animal kingdom is common and serves several functions, from removing ectoparasites to maintaining social bonds between conspecifics. We examined whether time spent grooming with others in a highly social mammal species was associated with infection status for gastrointestinal parasites. Of six parasites detected, one (Trichuris sp.) was associated with social grooming behaviors, but more specifically with direct physical contact with others. Individuals infected with Trichuris sp. spent significantly less time grooming conspecifics than those not infected, and time in direct contact with others was the major predictor of infection status. One model correctly predicted infection status for Trichuris sp. with a reliability of 95.17% overall when the variables used were time spent in direct contact and time spent grooming others. This decrease in time spent grooming and interacting with others is likely a sickness behavior displayed by individuals with less energy or motivation for non-essential behaviors. This study highlights the need for an understanding of a study population’s parasitic infections when attempting to interpret animal behavior.

Simple Summary For chimpanzees in zoos, the key aim of environmental enrichment is to enable them to exhibit behaviors, interactions, and societies similar to chimpanzees in the wild. A comparison of observational data, showed that the proportion of their time spent on collecting foraging was significantly lower in captive chimpanzees (located in Tama) than in wild chimpanzees (located in Mahale), but no significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of the proportion of their total time spent collecting, extractive, and hunting foraging. The percentage of time spent performing mutual grooming was much higher in Tama than in Mahale. Males, but not females, in Mahale formed a core social group, but no sex-specific differences were found in Tama. The multiple artificial feeders allowed chimpanzees in Tama to spend more time on extractive foraging to achieve a similar proportion of time on foraging as compared with that of the wild chimpanzees. The environmental enrichment for chimpanzees in Tama can be considered to be successful. Abstract Chimpanzees in zoos with sufficient and appropriate environmental enrichment devices are expected to exhibit behaviors, interactions, and societies similar to those in the wild. In this study, we compared the activity budgets of each observed behavior, characteristics of social grooming, and social networks of captive chimpanzees at Tama Zoological Park (Tama) with those of wild chimpanzees at Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania (Mahale), and tested our predictions. We surveyed 16 chimpanzees in both Tama and Mahale and recorded the behaviors and individuals in proximity of each focal individual and social grooming the focal individuals participated in. The proportion of time spent collecting foraging was significantly lower in Tama than in Mahale. Additionally, the percentage of mutual grooming was much higher in Tama than in Mahale. All focal individuals in Mahale performed mutual grooming interactions, including grooming handclasp (GHC) but this was not observed in Tama. The result of a high rate of mutual grooming in chimpanzees in Tama without GHC and the finding that individuals forming the core of their social network are sex independent suggest that chimpanzees placed in an appropriate environmental enrichment have idiosyncratic grooming or social features, even in captivity.

International audience; Allogrooming in primates serves not only a hygienic function, but also plays a crucial role in maintaining strong affiliative bonds between group members, which in turn, underpin the emergence of cooperative behavior. In contrast, although allopreening occurs in many avian species, we know little about its social functions. Our study addresses this issue by investigating allopreening in a broad comparative data set including six corvid and nine parrot species. We assessed whether rates of allopreening initiations, proportion of time spent allopreening, and the number of grooming partners in captive group-housed birds were comparable to patterns observed in captive chimpanzees and bonobos. While parrots and corvids were found to have similar rates of social grooming to bonobos and chimpanzees, Pan species dedicated significantly more time to social grooming. Animals in larger groups had more grooming partners, but when controlling for the number of potential partners, birds tended to have fewer grooming interaction partners than Pan species. We then investigated whether allopreening in parrots and corvids was predicted by behavioral markers of affiliative social bonds (close physical proximity, active feeding, and low levels of agonistic behavior). Results revealed that providing allopreening to a partner was significantly predicted by often being in close proximity, but not engagement in active feeding or agonistic behavior. We examined the region allopreened in a subset of species and found that preening a partner's head was predicted by both close physical proximity and active feeding, while body allopreening was only predicted by close physical proximity. Head preening may confer more hygienic benefits to recipients, and thus, may be more selectively provided to valued partners. Results support the hypothesis that allopreening in corvids and parrots helps maintain social bonds with an individual's most important social partners, showing some similarities to allogrooming in primates.

The long-term effects of early life adversities on social capacities have been documented in humans and wild-caught former laboratory chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). However, former pet and entertainment chimpanzees have received little attention to date. This study aimed to investigate the long-term effects of early life experience on 18 former pet and entertainment chimpanzees, based on social grooming data collected at a primate rescue centre over a 12-year period. Moreover, we also focused on the possible short-term effects that alterations to group composition might have on grooming patterns. For this purpose, we compared stable and unstable periods (i.e. where alterations to group composition occurred). We used two individual social network measures to analyse the grooming activity and the distribution of grooming among group mates for each individual. We could show that wild-caught chimpanzees were significantly more selective regarding their grooming partners and spent less time grooming when compared to their captive born companions. We also found that individuals who were predominantly housed without conspecifics during infancy spent less time grooming compared to those who were predominantly housed with conspecifics during infancy. Furthermore, we found that alterations to the group composition had short-term effects on the distribution of social grooming from a more equal distribution during periods with a stable group composition towards a more unequal and selective distribution during unstable periods. Thus, we conclude that the social grooming networks of former pet and entertainment chimpanzees are shaped not only by long-term effects such as early life experience, but also by short-term effects such as alterations to group composition. Remarkably, we found not only captive born chimpanzees but also wild-caught individuals to adjust their grooming to socially challenging situations by modifying their grooming distribution in a similar way This research has been funded by: (1) the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (HAR2009-07223/HIST), (2) Ministerio de Economía y Competividad (HAR2012-32548), (3) Generalitat de Catalunya (2009 SGR-188; 2014 SGR-899; 2017 SGR-1040), (4) Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PTDC/PSI-PCO/104170/2008), (5) Universitat Rovirai Virgili (2009AIRE-05;2005ACCES-13), (6) The project leading to these results has received funding from “la Caixa” Foundation (EMCOBA Project), under agreement LCF/PR/PR17/11120020 to ML and DC

Animals born with physical impairments may particularly require behavioural flexibility and innovation to survive and carry out social activities, such as grooming. Studies on free-ranging Japanese macaques on Awaji Island, Japan, have shown that individuals with congenital limb malformations exhibited compensatory behaviours while grooming, such as increased mouth and elbow use for removing ectoparasites. The aim of this study is to explore disabled and nondisabled grooming techniques to determine whether and to what extent disabled monkeys develop novel grooming techniques, and if there is disability-associated variation in grooming efficiency. We hypothesized that modified grooming techniques used by disabled monkeys fulfilled the social and relaxing functions of grooming, however, that grooming by manually impaired individuals may still carry a hygienic cost to the recipients. Grooming behavioural data were collected by video in 2007 on 27 adult females (11 with CLMs). With a detailed grooming-related ethogram, we transcribed 216 2-minute continuous grooming video samples. We analyzed the data using generalized linear mixed effects models in R. We found that monkeys with manual impairment were less efficient groomers, as measured by removal and movement efficiency during grooming. However, there were no significant differences associated with the number of grooming movements per sample among the focal animals. Additionally, with a behavioural sequential analysis, we isolated 8 distinct grooming techniques and 3 novel disability-specific movements. Our results indicate that innovation and modification of movement types does not entirely compensate for manual disability, and that manual impairment carries a cost to the hygienic function of grooming. However, for the grooming recipient, the experience of being groomed by a disabled or nondisabled groomer is likely similar, and through movement compensation, disabled monkeys are able to engage in the social aspect of grooming without incurring any disability-associated costs.

—Knowledge of grooming makes it possible to characterize the intragroup social connections of lemurs and accurately form groups in captivity. The results of this study showed that there are no significant differences in grooming between the black-and-white and red ruffed lemurs: in both subspecies, allogrooming is associated with a certain time of day to a lesser extent than autogrooming. In allogrooming, both subspecies of lemurs clean mainly those parts of the body that are difficult to reach for self-cleaning. An asymmetry in the distribution of allogrooming was revealed: a negative correlation between the age and frequency of the initiated mutual cleaning, predominance of grooming in male–female dyads and between related animals. Allogrooming in ruffed lemurs has three main contexts: the maintenance and establishment of social ties, pacification and buffer of aggression, and restoration of disturbed relations between social partners.

Social interactions affect the transmission of many pathogens, but infections often induce sickness behaviours that alter those interactions. Vampire bats are highly mobile and social, engaging in frequent allogrooming, which is likely to facilitate pathogen spread. Sickness behaviour is known to reduce social associations, but the effect on physical interactions between associated individuals, such as grooming, is less understood. Here, we tested the effects of induced sickness behaviour on allogrooming in vampire bats, while holding association between individuals in groups constant. To experimentally induce sickness behaviour, we used injections of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and saline controls in 13 female common vampire bats, Desmodus rotundus, housed in stable groups of two to four adult bats. LPS injection induced an immune response that mimicked illness. Circulating leukocytes and neutrophil:lymphocyte ratios increased, while body mass and activity decreased. While LPS-injected bats did not receive less grooming from their group mates, they dramatically reduced the amount that they groomed their partners. This reduction in social interactions illustrates that sickness behaviour can potentially change transmission rates by altering directed behaviours, even under conditions of constant close proximity. The ability to manipulate social behaviours under controlled conditions should also prove useful for experiments attempting to test mechanisms underlying cooperation.

Close proximity and social grooming are important bonding mechanisms in primates. These behaviors show the social structure of a species and many studies have found positive correlations between the degree of kinship and grooming and proximity. We used 1 year of data collected via instantaneous scan sampling on a large "supertroop" of Colobus angolensis ruwenzorii at Lake Nabugabo, Uganda, to examine partner preferences for grooming and nearest neighbors in each age-sex class. Little is known about this species, so we based our hypotheses on congeners. Of the five species of black-and-white colobus, data on sex-biased dispersal patterns are available for three (C. guereza, C. vellerosus, and C. polykomos), all of which show male-biased dispersal with occasional female dispersal. We thus predicted that female C. a. ruwenzorii would be more strongly bonded than males, showing greater proximity and grooming. We did not expect bonding between the sexes since congeners do not show this pattern. We found that among adult dyads, males and females were more likely to be found in loose proximity, and to groom, than would be expected given group composition. Conversely, both males and females had relatively weak same-sex relationships. Between the sexes, adult males had higher proximity and grooming indices with adult females without infants than with females with infants. These observations indicate that this subspecies is cross-bonded and that both sexes may disperse. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the social organization and social structure of C. a. ruwenzorii differ greatly from other black-and-white colobus species.

Grooming is a common animal behavior that aids in ectoparasite defense. Ectoparasites can stimulate grooming, and natural selection can also favor endogenous mechanisms that evoke periodic bouts of “programmed” grooming to dislodge or kill ectoparasites before they bite or feed. Moreover, grooming can function as a displacement or communication behavior. We compared the grooming behaviors of adult female black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) on colonies with or without flea control via pulicide dust. Roughly 91% of the prairie dogs sampled on the non-dusted colony carried at least one flea, whereas we did not find fleas on two dusted colonies. During focal observations, prairie dogs on the non-dusted colony groomed at higher frequencies and for longer durations than prairie dogs on the dusted colonies, lending support to the hypothesis that fleas stimulated grooming. However, the reduced amount of time spent grooming on the dusted colonies suggested that approximately 25% of grooming might be attributed to factors other than direct stimulation from ectoparasites. Non-dusted colony prairie dogs rarely autogroomed when near each other. Dusted colony prairie dogs autogroomed for shorter durations when far from a burrow opening (refuge), suggesting a trade-off between self-grooming and antipredator defense. Allogrooming was detected only on the non-dusted colony and was limited to adult females grooming young pups. Grooming appears to serve an antiparasitic function in C. ludovicianus. Antiparasitic grooming might aid in defense against fleas that transmit the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis. Plague was introduced to North America ca. 1900 and now has a strong influence on most prairie dog populations, suggesting a magnified effect of grooming on prairie dog fitness.

Mate guarding has been known to incur costs and cause constraints for harem males in many polygynous species. However, the effect of female group size on the harem male’s time budget in bats has received very limited attention. The Indian short-nosed fruit bat, Cynopterus sphinx, exhibits resource defense polygyny, in which tent roosting males construct tents and defend multiple female bats. We studied the effect of female group size on three aspects of harem male behavior: social grooming by reciprocal licking, tent maintenance, and tent guarding in the mast tree Polyalthia longifolia. In the process of reciprocal licking, all the bats in the harem were drenched in saliva before emergence, and this activity was positively and significantly correlated with female group size. Once females departed for foraging, harem males remained in their respective tents at night-time between intermittent foraging bouts and engaged in tent maintenance and tent guarding. Time invested by harem male bats in tent maintenance and tent guarding were positively and significantly correlated with female group size. Harem males extended their presence in tent by utilizing tents as feeding roosts. Female group size also influenced the emergence time of harem male bats, where males with largest group emerged later than did the smallest group. Likewise, harem male with the smallest group had more time available for foraging than the male with the largest group. Findings of this study suggest that having a larger harem may indeed be costly for the males by reducing their foraging time.

Social grooming is conspicuous in group-living mammals. Bats are gregarious and may groom each other, but the motivation for such social behaviour remains unclear. Here, we describe patterns and infer function of social grooming in tent-making Indian short-nosed fruit bats. Combining field and captivity observations, we found that males and their harem of females mutually groom and apply bodily secretions to one another in tight clusters. Mutual grooming is more commonly initiated by females, before emergence flight at dusk, and during the non-mating season. The within-harem association pattern suggests males may recognize female reproductive status via social grooming. Chemical analysis of the secretions applied during grooming revealed volatile organic compounds that may be involved in chemosensory-mediated communication and/or mate choice. These fruit bat harems were previously seen as simple aggregations, with limited interactions among individuals. Our findings suggest social grooming is multi-functional, with potential implications for the bats’ social lives.

Eusocial insects, such as ants, have access to complex disease defenses both at the individual, and at the colony level. However, different species may be exposed to different diseases, and/or deploy different methods of coping with disease. Here, we studied and compared survival after fungal exposure in 12 species of ants, all of which inhabit similar habitats. We exposed the ants to two entomopathogenic fungi (Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium brunneum), and measured how exposure to these fungi influenced survival. We furthermore recorded hygienic behaviors, such as autogrooming, allogrooming and trophallaxis, during the days after exposure. We found strong differences in autogrooming behavior between the species, but none of the study species performed extensive allogrooming or trophallaxis under the experimental conditions. Furthermore, we discuss the possible importance of the metapleural gland, and how the secondary loss of this gland in the genus Camponotus could favor a stronger behavioral response against pathogen threats.

Primates maintain social bonds with specific individuals in the group by directing grooming toward them. Social grooming is often targeted toward individuals with whom the most benefits can be exchanged, which are usually the high-ranking individuals. We used the Seyfarth model to investigate whether dominance rank alters the distribution of grooming in a group of Macaca fascicularis umbrosus at Great Nicobar Island. We investigated whether dominance rank predicted grooming rate in both males and females. We used social network analysis to examine whether high-ranking animals maintain a central position in the grooming network. We also investigated whether adult individuals exchange grooming for social tolerance, as indicated by physical proximity. We found that more social grooming was directed toward high-ranking females, but not high-ranking males. Social network analysis suggested that high-ranking animals are not central individuals in the distribution of grooming; rather, middle-ranking animals were major contributors to the distribution of grooming. There was no relation between the grooming rate and proximity in both males and females. Overall, our findings suggest that females prefer to direct grooming toward high-ranking partners, although the dominance hierarchy is less steep than expected for Macaca fascicularis. Thus rank-related grooming patterns may be a relatively conserved trait in this isolated island population.

We provide a preliminary case study in red-bellied lemurs (Eulemur rubriventer) to illustrate a multimodal approach to understanding communication strategies within a species with obligate pair-bonds. From June to August 2012, we observed and analyzed signaling behaviors across three established red-bellied lemur pairs at Duke Lemur Center (Durham, NC, USA). Our aim was to assess how individuals combine signal modalities to communicate with pair-mates, and to determine whether these strategies vary by time of day, sex, or pair. We analyzed rates of occurrence of touch (allogrooming, mutual grooming, physical contact, and huddling), scent (scent marking and allomarking), and sound (close-distance contact calls) using Wilcoxon rank sum and exact binomial tests. Time of day impacted rates of occurrence across signal modalities, with higher rates of combined signaling within each modality occurring earlier in the day (p 0.03). Across time periods, all pairs used auditory signals most frequently, followed by olfactory signals, and finally tactile and tactile-olfactory signals (p 0.01, all comparisons). In fact, auditory signals frequently overlapped the olfactory signaling modality, and travel rarely occurred without accompanying vocalizations. However, red-bellied lemurs spent the highest percentage of their observed time in tactile signaling bouts (on average, 19.5% of total observed time across pairs). Males and females participated equally in most signaling behaviors (p 0.1), with the exception of scent marking, which males used more frequently (p 0.01). The results of this study will aid in developing methods and hypotheses to determine how wild red-bellied lemurs communicate to form, maintain, and advertise their pair-bonds.

Understanding the temporal dynamics of how unfamiliar animals establish dominant-subordinate relationships and learn to modify their behavior in response to their social partner in context-appropriate manners is critical in biomedical research concerning social competence. Here we observe and analyze the microstructure of social and non-social behaviors as 21 pairs of outbred CD-1 male mice (Mus Musculus) establish dominant-subordinate relationships during daily 20-minute interaction for five consecutive days. Using Kleinberg burst detection algorithm, we demonstrate aggressive and subordinate interactions occur in bursting patterns followed by quiescence period rather than in uniformly distributed across social interactions. Further, we identify three phases of dominant-subordinate relationship development (pre-, middle-, and post-resolution) by combining phi-coefficient and difference methods used to determine at which bursting event mice resolve dominant-subordinate relationships. Using First Order Markov Chains within individuals we show dominant and subordinate animals establish significantly different behavioral repertoire once they resolve the relationships. In both dominant and subordinate mice, the transitions between investigative and agonistic behavior states are not common. Lastly, we introduce Forward Spike Time Tiling Coefficient, the strength of association between the given behavior of one individual with the target behavior of the other individual within a specified time window. With this method, we describe the likelihood of a mouse responding to a behavior with another behavior differ in pre- and post-resolution phases. The data suggest that subordinate mice learn to exhibit subordinate behavior in response to dominant partner’s behaviors while dominant mice become less likely to show subordinate behaviors in response to their partners’ action. Overall, with the tool we present in this study, the data suggest CD-1 male mice are able to establish dominance relationships and modify their behaviors even to the same social cues under different social contexts competently.

In domestic cattle, the relationship between dominance and allogrooming behaviour has been investigated in several studies. However, the results do not show a consistent pattern. The aim of this study was to investigate this relationship in a stable female beef cattle herd using social network analysis as a novel methodological approach. We tested two adaptive allogrooming hypotheses. The ‘Grooming-for-Commodity’ hypothesis posits that allogrooming is directed from low ranking animals towards higher ranking cows in exchange of tolerance and other favours. The ‘Grooming-for-Stability’ hypothesis predicts that allogrooming is performed by high ranking animals down the hierarchy in order to perpetuate the stability of the social structure. We recorded a herd of 15 Gasconne cows on pasture for 3 weeks (180 h) and recorded 681 agonistic interactions and 288 allogrooming events. To evaluate the relationship between dominance and allogrooming behaviour we calculated correlations between dominance index, individual behavioural effort (OUT-direction), and individual attractiveness (IN-direction). We found that more dominant animals provided much higher amount of allogrooming acts (p

Grooming is essential to build social relationships in primates. Its importance is universal among animals from different ranks; however, rank-related differences in feeding patterns can lead to conflicts between feeding and grooming in low-ranking animals. Unifying the effects of dominance rank on feeding and grooming behaviors contributes to revealing the importance of grooming. Here, I tested whether the grooming behavior of low-ranking females were similar to that of high-ranking females despite differences in their feeding patterns. I followed 9 Japanese macaques Macaca fuscata fuscata adult females from the Arashiyama group, and analyzed the feeding patterns and grooming behaviors of low- and high-ranking females. Low-ranking females fed on natural foods away from the provisioning site, whereas high-ranking females obtained more provisioned food at the site. Due to these differences in feeding patterns, low-ranking females spent less time grooming than high-ranking females. However, both low- and high-ranking females performed grooming around the provisioning site, which was linked to the number of neighboring individuals for low-ranking females and feeding on provisioned foods at the site for high-ranking females. The similarity in grooming area led to a range and diversity of grooming partners that did not differ with rank. Thus, low-ranking females can obtain small amounts of provisioned foods and perform grooming with as many partners around the provisioning site as high-ranking females. These results highlight the efforts made by low-ranking females to perform grooming and suggest the importance of grooming behavior in group-living primates.

The domestic cat is the only member of the Felidae to form social relationships with humans, and also, the only small felid to form intraspecific social groups when free ranging. The latter are matriarchies, and bear only a superficial similarity to those of the lion and cheetah, which evolved separately and in response to very different selection pressures. There is no evidence for intraspecific social behavior in the ancestral species Felis silvestris, and hence, the capacity for group formation almost certainly evolved concurrently with the self-domestication of the cat during the period 10,000 to 5,000 years before present. Social groups of F. catus are characterized by cooperation among related adult females in the raising of kittens from parturition onward and competition between adult males. Unlike more social Carnivora, cats lack ritualized submissive signals, and although “peck-order” hierarchies can be constructed from exchanges of aggressive and defensive behavior, these do not predict reproductive success in females, or priority of access to key resources, and thus do not illuminate the basis of normal cat society. Cohesion in colonies of cats is expressed as, and probably maintained by, allorubbing and allogrooming; transmission of scent signals may also play a largely uninvestigated role. The advantages of group living over the ancestral solitary territorial state have not been quantified adequately but are likely to include defense of permanent food sources and denning sites and protection against predators and possibly infanticide by invading males. These presumably outweigh the disadvantages of communal denning, enhanced transmission of parasites, and diseases. Given the lack of archaeological evidence for cats kept as pets until some 4,000 years before present, intraspecific social behavior was most likely fully evolved before interspecific sociality emerged. Signals directed by cats toward their owners fall into 3 categories: those derived from species-typical actions, such as jumping up, that become signals by association; signals derived from kitten-to-mother communication (kneading, meow); and those derived from intraspecific cohesive signals. Social stress appears widespread among pet cats, stemming from both agonistic relationships within households and territorial disputes with neighborhood cats, but simple solutions seem elusive, most likely because individual cats vary greatly in their reaction to encounters with other cats.

Termites defend their colonies from disease using an array of social behaviours, including allogrooming, cannibalism, and burial. We tested how groups of eastern subterranean termites (Reticulitermes flavipes) deploy these behaviours when presented with a nestmate at different stages of infection with the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae. As expected, the termites groomed pathogen-exposed individuals significantly more than mock-treated controls; however, grooming levels were significantly higher after spore germination than before. Cannibalism became prevalent only after exposed termites became visibly ill, and burial was rarely observed. These results demonstrate that termites employ different strategies depending on the stage of infection that they encounter. Grooming intensity is linked not only to pathogen presence, but also to germination status, and, given the temporal correlation between cannibalism and visible signs of illness, the host may play a role in triggering its own sacrifice.

Cooperative breeding is an excellent example of cooperation in social groups. Domestic dogs have evolved from cooperatively hunting and breeding ancestors but have adapted to a facultatively social scavenging lifestyle on streets, and solitary living in human homes. Pets typically breed and reproduce under human supervision, but free-ranging dogs can provide insights into the natural breeding ecology of dogs. We conducted a five year-long field based behavioural study on parental care of free-ranging dogs in India. 23 mother-litter units, belonging to 15 groups were observed, which revealed the presence of widespread allo-parenting by both adult males and females. While all the females were known to be related to the pups receiving care, the relatedness with the males could not be determined. Hence, we coined the term “putative father” for caregiving males. Allomothers provided significantly less care than the mothers, but the putative fathers showed comparable levels of care with the mothers. Mothers invested more effort in nursing and allogrooming, while the putative fathers played and protected more. Our observations provide support for both the “benefit-of-philopatry” and “assured fitness returns” hypotheses. Free-ranging dogs are not cooperative breeders like wolves but are rather communal breeders; their breeding biology bearing interesting similarities with the human joint family system. This breeding strategy is likely to have played an important role in increasing pup survival in a stochastic environment and helping to adapt to living among humans during the domestication of dogs.

Both wild and captive studies of grooming in non-human primates emphasize the adaptive role of this behavior. Indeed, social grooming is frequently characterized as “social glue” in the life of primates. Grooming behavior is studied to reveal dominance, kin relations, and social networks. Many captive primates, including apes, are observed to over-groom which may result in denuding of individuals. This study focused on a discrete pattern of grooming, specifically hair plucking—a rapid jerking away of the hand or mouth to remove the hair and hair follicle, often accompanied by inspection and consumption of the hair and follicle. This pattern has never been reported for wild bonobos ( Pan paniscus ) but is routinely observed in many individuals in captive colonies. Subjects were 17 bonobos (4 wild-born and 13 captive-born) housed at the Columbus Zoo. Data on grooming behavior were collected using all-occurrence sampling. Approximately 21% of self-directed and dyadic grooming bouts involved hair plucking. The four wild-born individuals were never observed to hair pluck. While plucking was not significantly different between males and females, subadult males plucked significantly more than adult males. Self-directed plucking appears to be influenced by dominance—the dominant male and female showed the highest percent of self-directed plucking behavior, 54% and 57%, respectively. This is the first study to document the significance of plucking in bonobo grooming behavior and contributes to discussions of visitors’ perception of ape well being.

In this study, we documented the behavioral changes of major soldiers of the subterranean termite Macrotermes gilvus (Hagen) (Blattodea: Termitidae) infected with larvae of the phorid fly Misotermes mindeniDisney & Neoh (Diptera: Phoridae). During periods of starvation, the longevity of parasitized individuals was significantly greater than that of unparasitized individuals. Parasitized individuals received significantly more frequent trophallaxis from the workers than unparasitized individuals. The frequency of allogrooming of parasitized individuals by workers was also significantly greater than that of unparasitized individuals. The extent to which workers provided trophallaxis and allogrooming for parasitized individuals did not differ significantly between colonies with and without unparasitized individuals. Likewise, no significant difference in the frequency of trophallaxis between workers and unparasitized individuals was detected in the groups with and without parasitized individuals. However, distinct differences in allogrooming frequency between groups with and without parasitized individuals were detected. Workers/unparasitized individuals exhibited significantly more allogrooming behavior when parasitized individuals were present. Parasitized major soldiers and unparasitized, food-deprived major soldiers received significantly more often trophallaxis from the workers than unparasitized major soldiers. Presence of a parasitoid fly in major soldiers may promote the frequent feeding of parasitized individuals by workers. Based on these data, the behavioral adjustments appear to be beneficial to the parasitoids, as the changes clearly increase their chances of survival and their chances of completion of their larval development before the host dies.

Recently, some primatologists have begun studying social customs, which had been neglected in research despite their importance to human culture. We observed embracing behaviors 64 times during 543.8 hours of focal animal sampling, targeting adult females in a wild group of Japanese macaques in Yakushima, Japan, and compared the results with those in macaques in Kinkazan. Embracing occurred immediately after the spontaneous pause of allogrooming, aggressions, and approach between dyads frequently exchanging antagonistic interactions, all of which are considered to be stressful conditions. Embracing in Yakushima may, therefore, serve to reduce stress; this may also be the case in Kinkazan. Despite this functional similarity, the forms of embracing in Yakushima are slightly different from those in Kinkazan. First, not only ventro-ventral embraces, but also ventro-lateral and ventro-dorsal embraces were found in Yakushima. Second, kneading another’s fur by rhythmically opening and closing the palm occurred in Yakushima, instead of a rhythmic, body-rocking movement in Kinkazan. Because we cannot devise genetic or ecological explanations for the subtle local differences in embraces, this type of behavior may be identified as the first evidence for social customs in wild Japanese macaques., ニホンザル初の社会的慣習を発見. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2015-02-10.

Open wounds are a major health risk in animals, with species prone to injuries likely developing means to reduce these risks. We therefore analysed the behavioural response towards open wounds on the social and individual level in the termite group-hunting ant Megaponera analis . During termite raids, some ants get injured by termite soldiers (biting off extremities), after the fight injured ants get carried back to the nest by nest-mates. We observed treatment of the injury by nest-mates inside the nest through intense allogrooming at the wound. Lack of treatment increased mortality from 10% to 80% within 24 h, most likely due to infections. Wound clotting occurred extraordinarily fast in untreated injured individuals, within 10 min. Furthermore, heavily injured ants (loss of five extremities) were not rescued or treated; this was regulated not by the helper but by the unresponsiveness of the injured ant. Interestingly, lightly injured ants behaved ‘more injured’ near nest-mates. We show organized social wound treatment in insects through a multifaceted help system focused on injured individuals. This was not only limited to selective rescuing of lightly injured individuals by carrying them back (thus reducing predation risk), but, moreover, included a differentiated treatment inside the nest.

Owl monkeys (Aotus spp.) are socially monogamous, yet allogrooming is reported to be rare. Because Aotus are nocturnal and arboreal, allogrooming is difficult to observe in natural settings. We observed 21 male-female pairs of captive Aotus nancymaae during 2 nonconsecutive study periods in order to describe the details of allogrooming between mates (partner grooming). We found that grooming bouts are brief and consist of tugging the hair or skin with flexed fingers and/or the mouth. Males groomed females most often, and their rates of partner grooming were negatively related to age. Partner grooming occurred regardless of mating behavior. Camera trap data revealed that the rate of partner grooming (1.50 bouts/h) is greater than that recorded from our direct observations in the early evenings (0.51 bouts/h, in 2013; 0.37 bouts/h in 2003) given that most bouts occurred later in the night. A positive relationship between the rates of the parents' partner grooming and those of their offspring later in life suggests intergenerational transmission. This relationship is influenced by the fathers' rates of partner grooming. We conclude that allogrooming in Aotus is a normal part of their behavioral repertoire that likely serves social functions similar to those in other pair-bonded primates.

Allogrooming behaviour between adult mammals in non-sexual and non-parental contexts appears, on the whole, to be less common than in birds. It has been observed in a wide variety of ungulate and artiodactyl species in zoos, but the individuals may have been paired in most cases. Species which have evolved allogrooming or allopreening behaviour have ritualized invitation behaviour which often immediately precedes the partner starting to allogroom or allopreen. Allogrooming is accompanied by fixation on the area receiving attention, and this gives the impression that the grooming monkey is exercising extreme concentration. Under natural conditions, allogrooming may be important in the removal of ecto-parasites from the pelage. Many allogrooming bouts are initiated by invitation of the dominant animal. On comparative grounds, it would seem reasonable that higher-status individuals should allogroom those of lower status. There is a correlation between the rigidity of the hierarchy and the amount of allogrooming behaviour.

The social organization of natural groups of Rhinopithecus bieti (Yunnan snub-nosed monkey) is virtually unknown. We studied the demography and social structure of a free-ranging group at Samage Forest, China, for nearly 2 years. This study confirmed that R. bieti exhibits a multilevel social organization of core 1-male units (OMUs) that congregate in a band of >400 members. Even though the band appeared to be unified for the most part, we also witnessed occasional fission-fusion. OMUs were cohesive entities, and their members were spatially and socially isolated from members of other OMUs. Large all-male units associated with the band, and when they closely followed OMUs there was a tendency for elevated male aggression. Within OMUs, females associated preferentially with males and vice versa, resulting in a bisexually bonded society. Contrary to other Asian colobines, R. bieti were comparatively social, with grooming occupying 7.3% of the time. Social grooming was primarily a female affair, but males also participated in grooming networks. The integration of males into the social network of the OMU is thought to help to maintain OMU integrity and cohesion with other social units being in close proximity.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-11T17:12:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2017-06-09 Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) The aim of this study was to determine whether worker self-grooming, allogrooming, and direct contact promotes the dispersal of substances among members of the colony. For this purpose, a tracer (Sudan III dye) was applied topically to a worker ant and the social interactions between the worker with the tracer and workers without the tracer were studied. Additionally, the worker heads were dissected to visualize whether or not the post-pharyngeal gland was stained. The post-pharyngeal glands from 50% to 70% of workers were stained depending on the size of the group. With the increase in the experimental group size, the frequency of interactions between workers increased, with touching being the most frequent behavior. The tracer dye was probably passed on by direct contact between workers, followed by self-grooming and allogrooming. These behaviors are responsible for the rapid dispersal of substances among colony members as observed in our experiment. The results therefore support the hypothesis that contact with substances promotes the contamination of nestmates, even in the absence of feeding, serving as a model for further studies on the contamination of workers with the active ingredients of insecticides. Laboratório de Insetos Sociais-Praga Departamento de Produção Vegetal Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas UNESP, Caixa Postal 237 Laboratório de Insetos Sociais-Praga Departamento de Produção Vegetal Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas UNESP, Caixa Postal 237 CNPq: 301718/2013-0

Individual host behavior may be influenced by infectious disease in ways that can alter population-level disease dynamics. A novel pathogen in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, Mycobacterium mungi, has emerged among banded mongooses (Mungos mungo) in Northeastern Botswana. This host–pathogen system provides an opportunity to study how individual behavior and social interactions in a group-living species might respond to infectious disease. We used repeated focal observations of known individuals with an extensive ethogram to identify behavioral differences and social interactions between healthy individuals and those with clinical signs of tuberculosis (TB). Clinically diseased banded mongooses exhibited a significantly smaller proportion of time active and alert, a larger proportion of time resting, and a slower behavioral transition rate compared to healthy individuals. They also showed lower reciprocation of allogrooming by approximately 50 %. Despite these strong behavioral differences that may serve as visible cues for healthy mongooses to avoid diseased conspecifics, we found no evidence for avoidance of clinically diseased mongooses by healthy individuals or vice versa: Clinically diseased individuals did not have lower levels of social behaviors than healthy individuals, and clinically diseased mongooses were allogroomed at the expected level despite their decreased reciprocation. Our results show that in contrast to prior studies of other species, avoidance of diseased conspecifics did not occur in this highly social species. We discuss hypotheses for this lack of avoidance and potential implications for pathogen transmission.

Closely related species have similar reproductive behaviors and recognition systems, which contribute to interspecific interactions. However, few studies have explored interspecific reproduction choice and mating in termites. We investigated whether hybridization between two sympatric termites, Reticulitermes flaviceps and R. chinensis, occurs under laboratory conditions. We found that frequencies of acceptance were significantly higher than those of agonism between interspecific partners. There were no significant differences in frequencies of tandem and mating behaviors between intraspecific and interspecific partners. However, the allogrooming frequencies of interspecific partners were significantly higher than intraspecific partners. There were no significant differences in the duration of tandem, allogrooming, or mating behavior at each time between conspecific partners and heterospecfic partners. Genotyping analyses further showed that both intraspecific and interspecific mating were able to produce offspring. We conclude that interspecific hybridization does occur between two termite Reticulitermes species under laboratory conditions.

In social insects, alerting nestmates to the presence of a pathogen should be critical for limiting its spread and initiating social mechanisms of defense. Here we show that subterranean termites use elevated vibratory alarm behavior to help prevent fatal fungal infections. The elevated alarm leads to elevated social hygiene. This requires that termites coalesce so that they can groom each other&rsquo, s cuticular surfaces of contaminating conidial spores. Groups of 12 Reticulitermes flavipes workers varied in their response when immersed in conidia solutions of nine different strains of Metarhizium. Pathogen alarm displays of short 2&ndash, 7-second bursts of rapid longitudinal oscillatory movement (LOM), observed over 12 min following a fungal challenge, were positively correlated with the time that workers spent aggregated together grooming each other. The frequency of these LOMs was inversely correlated with fatal fungal infections. The variation in fatalities appeared to be largely attributable to a differential response to Metarhizium brunneum and Metarhizium robertsii in the time spent in aggregations and the frequency of allogrooming. Isolated workers challenged with conidia did not display LOMs, which suggests that the alarm is a conditional social response. LOMs appear to help signal the presence of fungal pathogens whose virulence depends on the level of this emergency alert.

Little is known about the social behaviour of roosting insectivorous bats in Australia. Interactions between individuals and movements between multiple roosts at a building maternity site of the chocolate wattled bat (Chalinolobus morio) were examined using video observation and Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tagging, respectively. Bats of both sexes were seen to allogroom, which involved pairs of individuals simultaneously grooming each other around the face. This is the first occurrence of allogrooming reported between male vespertilionids, globally. In total, 366 bats were PIT tagged and analysis of movements revealed that bats exhibited a fission–fusion pattern of roost usage with sufficient switching among nearby roosts, such that all individuals were potentially able to associate and interact over a period of 150–200 days. Rates of roost fidelity varied markedly from 1 to 7.2 days of continuous occupancy of roosts, with females exhibiting slightly higher overall levels of fidelity over the nine-month monitoring period. The information gained from this study, when combined with results from other research, provides a sufficient basis for the description of the apparent breeding system for this species, where both males and females at the summer maternity roost are natally philopatric and mating takes place over winter in an expanded gene pool, comprising individuals that have dispersed from multiple summer maternity roosts.

Summary To fight infectious diseases, host immune defenses are employed at multiple levels. Sanitary behavior, such as pathogen avoidance and removal, acts as a first line of defense to prevent infection [1] before activation of the physiological immune system. Insect societies have evolved a wide range of collective hygiene measures and intensive health care toward pathogen-exposed group members [2]. One of the most common behaviors is allogrooming, in which nestmates remove infectious particles from the body surfaces of exposed individuals [3]. Here we show that, in invasive garden ants, grooming of fungus-exposed brood is effective beyond the sheer mechanical removal of fungal conidiospores; it also includes chemical disinfection through the application of poison produced by the ants themselves. Formic acid is the main active component of the poison. It inhibits fungal growth of conidiospores remaining on the brood surface after grooming and also those collected in the mouth of the grooming ant. This dual function is achieved by uptake of the poison droplet into the mouth through acidopore self-grooming and subsequent application onto the infectious brood via brood grooming. This extraordinary behavior extends the current understanding of grooming and the establishment of social immunity in insect societies.

Allogrooming is considered as an altruistic behavior wherein primates exchange grooming as a tradable commodity for reciprocal grooming or other commodities such as support during aggression and tolerance during co-feeding. First, we report a case of the grooming relationships of the lowest-ranking adult female in a group of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata). The female (Lp) had lost a portion of the fur and was groomed by higher-ranking individuals without providing reciprocal grooming or other commodities. The groomers probably fed on lice eggs from the fur of Lp more frequently than from that of other adult groomees. This suggests that grooming-related feeding (GRF) motivated many individuals to groom Lp and influenced grooming reciprocity in dyads. Second, we investigated quantitative grooming data for adult females. A high GRF rate was found to lengthen the duration of grooming, suggesting that GRF motivates groomers to groom. From these results, we proposed 2 possible reasons for groomers' sensitivity to GRF rate: (1) the nutritional benefit from GRF compensates for part of the cost of giving grooming and facilitates giving grooming and (2) groomer's sensitivity to the GRF rate maintains the efficiency of removing lice eggs and ensures the groomee's hygienic benefit in receiving grooming.

In many species, the loss of alpha matriarchs is associated with a number of negative outcomes such as troop fission, eviction, wounding, and reduced vitality. However, whether the dramatic consequences of their loss are due to their role as an old experienced figure or to their alpha status remains unclear. In a retrospective study, we tested that in a semi-free ranging colony of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), the removal of a non-alpha matriarch, who had a large set of kin, led to changes in behavior and physiological stress within her matriline. Following her removal, her matriline increased in aggression, vigilance, and social grooming. Additionally, hierarchical stability, measured by levels of rank changes, decreased within her matriline, and levels of intense aggression by high-ranking animals were more frequent, as well as matrilineal wounding. Although ordinal rank was positively associated with higher chronic hair cortisol concentrations (HCCs) in the months before the matriarch’s removal, following her removal, only those who experienced large increases in rank within her matriline displayed higher HCCs. Changes in matrilineal stability, aggression, behavior, and HCCs within the other two matrilines in the troop were not evident, although caution is needed due to the small sample sizes. We conclude that the removal of the non-alpha matriarch led to matrilineal instability, characterized by higher levels of aggression and subsequent vigilance, rank changes, physiological stress, and grooming. We suggest that non-alpha matriarchs with a large number of kin and social support can be integral to the stability of matrilines.

Lice are socially-transmitted ectoparasites. Transmission depends upon their host's degree of contact with conspecifics. While grooming facilitates ectoparasite transmission via body contact, it also constrains their spread through parasite removal. We investigated relations between parasite burden and sociality in female Japanese macaques following two opposing predictions: i) central females in contact/grooming networks harbour more lice, related to their numerous contacts; ii) central females harbour fewer lice, related to receiving more grooming. We estimated lice load non-invasively using the conspicuous louse egg-picking behaviour performed by macaques during grooming. We tested for covariation in several centrality measures and lice load, controlling for season, female reproductive state and dominance rank. Results show that the interaction between degree centrality (number of partners) and seasonality predicted lice load: females interacting with more partners had fewer lice than those interacting with fewer partners in winter and summer, whereas there was no relationship between lice load and centrality in spring and fall. This is counter to the prediction that increased contact leads to greater louse burden but fits the prediction that social grooming limits louse burden. Interactions between environmental seasonality and both parasite and host biology appeared to mediate the role of social processes in louse burden., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published