Playful behaviors of subordinate adult male howler monkeys (genus Alouatta) in competitive contexts: cases of tactical deceptions?
Playful behaviors of subordinate adult male howler monkeys (genus Alouatta) in competitive contexts: cases of tactical deceptions?
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.813412402014
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Palavras-chave: Comportamento afiliativo; Comportamento agonístico; Flexibilidade comportamental; Grupo misto de espécies; Hibridização; Manipulação
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Keywords: Affiliative behavior; Agonistic behavior; Behavioral flexibility; Hybridisation; Manipulation; Mixed species group.
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Abstract: Individuals can have conflicting interests, which become more conspicuous when involving disputes over resources. In these situations, subordinates can tacitly deceive others, eventually using affiliative behaviors to buffer agonisms from dominants. Deception and social plays in primates are known to be related to a higher degree of cognition. In some circumstances, they can be interchanged, although the first remains elusive in the more arboreal South American primates, as in the folivorous howler monkeys (genus Alouatta). Here, I report seven records in which subordinate adult males of wild brown howlers (Alouatta guariba clamitans) living in two mixed-species groups with black-and-gold howlers (A. caraya) and their potential hybrids displayed playful behaviors towards more dominant males from both species in situations of intra- and intergroup and intra- and interespecific disputes over sexual and feeding resources. I performed a total of 1,400 hours of direct observations in a 150-ha forest fragment in southern Brazil, between April 2007 and June 2008. The playful behaviors were successful in buffering agonisms, which were accentuated in their absence. In contrast, these displays were distinct from observed typical social plays, which were symmetric and did not involve sexual or feeding contexts. These findings support the hypothesis that the playful behavior observed was a modification of affiliative behaviors meant to cause dominants to misinterpret or not react to the subordinates’ behavior, as predicted by the tactical deception theory. This study widens the number of howler monkey taxa that display these behaviors. At the same time, their effectiveness in evading agonisms during interespecific interactions suggests that these behaviors represent a social regulation present even in wild, mixed groups of howler monkey species.
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