Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

, Volume 59, Issue 4, pp 511–520 | Cite as

Social behavior of free-ranging juvenile sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus atys)

Original Article
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Abstract

Sooty mangabeys are terrestrial monkeys exhibiting female philopatry and male dispersal. Studies in captivity as well as in the wild have found that adult females form linear dominance hierarchies. However, while captive studies found no evidence for a matrilineal social system, a previous study in Taï National Park, Ivory Coast, suggested that relatedness could influence both dominance rank and affiliation pattern among adult females. Here I test whether the dominance rank, coalitionary behavior, and affiliative behavior of juveniles in a group of free-ranging mangabeys in the Taï National Park are in accordance with a matrilineal, individual, or age-related dominance system. I found that juvenile females' dominance ranks remained stable over time and were highly correlated with the dominance ranks of their mothers, whereas juvenile males' dominance ranks were initially correlated with the ranks of their mothers, but showed greater instability with increasing age. Moreover, coalitions occurred mainly between juveniles and animals that were close in rank, including their mothers and siblings. Finally, juvenile females associated and groomed preferentially with close-ranking juvenile and adult females. Juvenile males showed similar preferences in affiliation with adult females, but when associating with juvenile males, they preferred peers. The observed social behavior of free-ranging juvenile sooty mangabeys resembled the social behavior described for juveniles of many matrilineal primate species.

Keywords

Sooty mangabeys Social system Dominance Affiliation Coalitions 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

I thank the Ministère de la Recherche Scientifique and the Ministère de l'Agriculture et des Ressources Animales of Cote d'Ivoire for permission to conduct my research in the Taï National Park. I am grateful to the Taï Monkey Project, the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, and the staff of the Centre de Recherche en Ecologie research station in Taï for logistical support. I was supported by the “DAAD Doktorandenstipendiums im Rahmen des gemeinsamen Hochschulsonderprogramms III von Bund und Laendern.” Richard Peho and Gerard Gha provided invaluable assistance in the field by locating the study group and by collecting data. I thank the members of the Taï Monkey Project for support in the field and R. Seyfarth, D. Cheney, A.H. Korstjens, T. Bugnyar, L. Huber, M.E. Pereira, and an anonymous reviewer for comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2005

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Dep. Für Verhaltens-, Neuro- und Kognitions- BiologieUniversität WienWienAustria
  2. 2.Taï Monkey ProjectCentre Suisse de Recherches ScientifiquesAbidjan, Cote d'IvoireFrance

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