We describe basic patterns of postconflict affiliation between former opponents within a group of wild, provisioned Tibetan macaques Macaca thibetana on Mt. Huangshan, China. Like most primates studied to date, Tibetan macaques reconciled, i.e., overall they engaged in affiliative interaction with opponents at higher rates immediately after an aggressive conflict than at other times. Probabilities of affiliation were enhanced ≤30 s after the end of hostilities. However when we examined sex partner combinations separately, we found unequivocal evidence for reconciliation only for male-male dyads. Tolerant interaction among other partner combinations apparently was not disrupted after a conflict, presumably obviating the need to reconcile. One aspect of reconciliation among males was consistent with other indications of a despotic dominance style: aggressors initiated a higher proportion of affiliative interactions after a conflict than at other times. Another aspect of reconciliation was more typical of relaxed dominance styles: males used specialized behaviors (embraces and same-sex mounts) disproportionately to reconcile. We also found inconsistent evidence for the valuable relationship hypothesis; probabilities of reconciliation were enhanced for male-male dyads with the closest affiliative relationships, but not for those that displayed the most tolerance or mutual agonistic support. We discuss reconciliation and other aspects of conflict management among males in the context of a group with nearly even sex ratios and high male-male mating competition.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank the Huangshan Monkey Management Center and the Huangshan Garden Forest Bureau for permission to carry out research at Mt. Huangshan. We received financial support from the Leakey Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the National Geographic Society, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Key Teacher Program of the Ministry of Education of China, and the Excellent Youth Foundation of Anhui. We thank May Lee Gong, Krista Jones, Stephan Menu, Stephanie Pieddesaux, Justin Sloan, and Lei Zhang for field assistance. We also thank Lei Zhang and Akie Yanagi for translating Chinese and Japanese works into English. We benefited greatly from discussions with Hideshi Ogawa and from comments of 2 anonymous reviewers. Finally, we give special thanks to Xinming Chen and his family for taking us into their home and making us feel so welcome in China.
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Berman, C.M., Ionica, C.S., Dorner, M. et al. Postconflict Affiliation Between Former Opponents in Macaca thibetana on Mt. Huangshan, China. Int J Primatol 27, 827–854 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-006-9039-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-006-9039-y