Home Page

General Information

Habitat and Diet

Social Spacing

Foraging Behavior

Social Group

Mating Behavior

Grooming Behavior and Cooperative Altruism

Maternal Care and Alloparenting

References

Picture courtesy of: Richard Seaman©

Grooming is a type of social activity that occurs during resting periods (besides sleeping) when capuchins form a compact mass about 20 meters around the dominant male (Izawa, 1980). The frequency of grooming varies throughout the year, depending on the amount of food available (DiBitetti, 1997). When there is a limited amount of food resources, more grooming behavior is observed. The grooming behavior of the capuchin is consistent with that of other New World monkeys, but is quite different than Old World monkeys who strive to maintain a constant amount of allogrooming throughout the year. This suggests that New World monkeys have other types of social communication (besides grooming) to maintain group unity that the Old World monkeys lack (DiBitetti, 1997). Grooming occurs less frequently among the brown capuchin than the other three species of capuchin monkeys, which suggests that their social organization consists of triangular relationships, not linear relationships. This is because there are bonds between adult males and females, adult females and juveniles and juveniles and adult males (but no interaction between juveniles and adult females) (Izawa, 1980).

Allogrooming is a critical aspect of the social behavior of capuchin monkeys, as it entails the detailed inspection of another’s fur and removing dirt and ectoparasites with either their hands, teeth or tongue (DiBitetti, 1997). Among close kin, allogrooming behavior was observed to be given more between juveniles and their mothers when foraging slowly (Izawa, 1980). Despite their matrilineal lineage, mothers prefer certain daughters over others, protecting and grooming them more. Interestingly, higher ranking females groom others more often than lower ranking females (O’Brien and Robinson, 1993). DiBitetti (1997) observed that the dominant pair within a group had the highest occurrence of grooming behavior, but overall, females were more active in giving grooming sessions than males. The majority of these grooming bouts (about 60%) are directed towards the dominant male (DiBitetti, 1997). The dominant male directs his grooming sessions towards adult females, paying no attention to the juveniles DiBitetti, 1997). While in estrus, females direct more grooming behavior towards adult males which is in harmony with the sexual behavior of the female capuchin as females put more energy into securing their relationships with males.

It is possible that the capuchins exhibit cooperative altruistic behavior, as their foraging behavior is ultimately selfish based on individual selection of fruits (Case, 2005). However, the recipient and actor’s level of fitness is increased as a result of living and foraging in groups. Capuchins forage in groups, alerting each other when a patch of food is found, thus enabling all individuals within a group to feed from the same patch. Further, the practice of allomothering, alloparenting and allogrooming suggest the importance in exhibiting altruistic behavior for help is necessary from all members of a group to raise the young. The females within the female-bonded group act as helpers by assisting each other in caring and feeding the young while the dominant male baby-sits the offspring, which allows the females to feed.

Capuchins are also known to engage in “hugging behavior.” Little research exists on this phenomenon, but it is apparent that older capuchins give more hugs than juveniles and it is a one-sided hug. Further, hugs among capuchins (much like among humans) resulted when an individual appeared to be tense for one reason or another (Izawa, 1980).

This webpage was created by Kathleen Tanner in partial fulfillment of requirements for an undergraduate biology class in Animal Behavior at Davidson College in Spring 2005. Questions should be addressed to katanner@davidson.edu.