SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF ADULT SOCIAL AND AUTOGROOMING PATTERNS IN TWO SPECIES OF MACAQUE

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Abstract
A quantitative study was made of the social and autogrooming bahavior of pigtail and bonnet macaques under comparable, controlled conditions. Both species spent similarly large portions of the day engaged in these body care activities, but that difference between different groups within each species far outweighed differences between the species. Females showed significantly more social grooming than males, but no difference between the sexes in autogrooming appeared. Social grooming bouts lasted significantly longer than autogrooming bouts. Significant negative correlations were obtained for the durations of autogrooming and initiating social grooming, autogrooming and receiving social grooming and the initiation and receipt of social grooming. Several alternative hypotheses are suggested to explain these correlation findings and the obtained difference between the current findings on sex differences in social grooming in bonnets and those obtained on the same species by Simonds [1965] in the field.