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Effect of target animacy on hand preference in Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana)

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Abstract

Twenty-eight captive Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) were involved in the current study. Many individuals showed handedness, with a modest tendency toward left-hand use especially for animate targets, although no group-level handedness was found. There was no significant gender difference in the direction and strength of hand preference for both targets. Females showed a significantly higher overall rate of actions toward animate targets than inanimate targets for both hands, whereas males displayed almost the reversed pattern. There were no significant interactions between lateral hand use and target animacy for either males or females. Most individuals showed rightward or leftward laterality shift trends between inanimate and animate targets. These findings to some extent support the existence of a potential trend concerning a categorical neural distinction between targets demanding functional manipulation (inanimate objects) and those demanding social manipulation (animate objects), even though specialized hand preference based on target animacy has not been fully established in this arboreal Old World monkey species.

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Acknowledgments

We appreciate animal keepers of Beijing Wildlife Zoo for their assistance during data collection.

Funding

This study was funded by National Natural Science Fund of China (No. 31200293), Talent Introduction Fund of Tianjin Normal University of China (No. 5RL115), and “More Than One Thousand Talents Introduction within Three Years” Fund of Tianjin City of China (No. 5KQM110002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Animal and Plant Resistance, College of Life Sciences, Tianjin Normal University, Binshui West Road 393, Xiqing District, Tianjin, 300387, China

    Dapeng Zhao, Xiangling Tian & Zhuoyue Chen

  2. Beijing Wildlife Zoo, Beijing, China

    Xinchen Liu

  3. College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an, China

    Baoguo Li

Authors
  1. Dapeng Zhao
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  2. Xiangling Tian
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  3. Xinchen Liu
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  4. Zhuoyue Chen
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  5. Baoguo Li
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Correspondence to Dapeng Zhao.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All applicable international and Chinese guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. The research procedure was approved by the academic committee at college of life sciences, Tianjin Normal University of China.

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Zhao, D., Tian, X., Liu, X. et al. Effect of target animacy on hand preference in Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana). Anim Cogn 19, 977–985 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-016-1002-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-016-1002-5

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