Monitoring of group mates in relation to their activity in mandrills

Abstract

Primates are known to have considerable knowledge about the social relationships that link their group mates, and are likely to derive this information from observing the social interactions that occur in their social group. They may therefore be hypothesized to pay particular attention to the social interactions involving group mates. In this study, we evaluated how the attention captive mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) devote to their group mates was modulated by the behavior of the latter. Mandrills looked most frequently at foraging individuals and least frequently at sleeping invividuals. Mandrills also looked at grooming individuals more than at individuals that were simply sitting in contact. Grooming dyads were looked at regardless of the social rank and kinship of the individuals involved. These results contribute to our understanding of how primates obtain their social knowledge.