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My primate studies

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  • Primate tales: Memoirs from leaders in primatology
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Abstract

In this paper, I describe my 62 years in primatology focusing on some of the key findings from fieldwork conducted in Japan, India, and Africa. My first study on nonhuman primates described in detail the division of a troop of Japanese macaques at Takasakiyama. After that, I had an opportunity to work on Hanuman langurs at Dharwar, India. These langurs lived in one-male, multi-female groups. This type of group structure was maintained through takeovers by all-male parties. The adult male and all juvenile males were chased out of the group. By this process, the one-male, multi-female group system was maintained. The incoming adult male bit and killed all infants in the group. Mothers who lost their infants went into estrus and mated with the newly arrived male. For many years, scientists ignored these events or ruled them out as abnormal behavior. My work on Japanese macaques suggested that concentrated resources created by artificial feeding exaggerated dominance rank hierarchies among individuals, whereas it is comparatively relaxed in the natural environment. I also investigated the population dynamics of a troop and the life histories of individuals. From these studies, I documented the frequency of twin births, the carrying of dead infants by mothers, and the occurrence of physical malformations. These observations were made possible through artificial feeding, revealing the merits and demerits of this approach. I pointed out that authors and journal editors must be careful to acknowledge important elements of the environment where studies are conducted, and these should be described when reporting results in scientific articles. My studies of chimpanzees were conducted at Bossou, Guinea. I suggested that there are males who lived outside of bisexual groups. Chimpanzees in this population made and used many kinds of tools. Some of them were observed only at Bossou, and a few were only discovered 20 years after the establishment of Bossou as a research site. After decades of research on tool use in this species, I also suggested that there are cultural zones throughout the geographic distribution of chimpanzees.

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Acknowledgements

Nelson Broche kindly helped me prepare the English version of the manuscript. Comments by John Mitani and two reviewers improved the paper. During over 60 years of research on monkeys and apes, many senior colleagues, friends, government officials and field assistants supported me. My heartfelt thanks to them and to the many organizations that have made my work possible.

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  1. Primate Research Station, Kitabesso 23-3, Inuyama, 484-0081, Japan

    Yukimaru Sugiyama

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Sugiyama, Y. My primate studies. Primates 63, 9–24 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-021-00969-9

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