Tail coiling behaviour around conspecific’s body during fur rubbing in white-faced capuchins

Capuchins select certain plants to rub their pelage, a behaviour that can be both solitary, or collective. When rubbing their fur in body contact of conspecifics, capuchins sometimes coil their semi-prehensile tail around the body of the capuchin(s) in contact. However, the underlying mechanisms of...

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Main Authors: Helene Meunier, Jean-Louis Deneubourg, Odile Petit
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Société Francophone de Primatologie 2019-07-01
Series:Revue de Primatologie
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/primatologie/3714
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author Helene Meunier
Jean-Louis Deneubourg
Odile Petit
author_facet Helene Meunier
Jean-Louis Deneubourg
Odile Petit
author_sort Helene Meunier
collection DOAJ
description Capuchins select certain plants to rub their pelage, a behaviour that can be both solitary, or collective. When rubbing their fur in body contact of conspecifics, capuchins sometimes coil their semi-prehensile tail around the body of the capuchin(s) in contact. However, the underlying mechanisms of tail coiling around conspecifics have never been studied previously and we propose to examine the impact of sociodemographic factors on this peculiar behaviour. Through this quantitative study, we found that (1) all the individuals emit and receive tail coiling, (2) affiliation drives the extent to which this behaviour is emitted; (3) emission and reception of tail coiling are symmetrical, even if delayed in time; (4) tail coiling frequency depends on the food resource used to perform fur rubbing and (5) tail coiling does not increase the duration of fur-rubbing behaviour. Our data does not support the hypothesis that tail coiling allows the recruitment of conspecifics in fur rubbing behaviour; instead, this behaviour seems to be more associated with social allo-rubbing.
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spelling doaj-art-91e0a705f7804088b4187cca9d2681f52025-01-30T10:02:17ZengSociété Francophone de PrimatologieRevue de Primatologie2077-37572019-07-01910.4000/primatologie.3714Tail coiling behaviour around conspecific’s body during fur rubbing in white-faced capuchinsHelene MeunierJean-Louis DeneubourgOdile PetitCapuchins select certain plants to rub their pelage, a behaviour that can be both solitary, or collective. When rubbing their fur in body contact of conspecifics, capuchins sometimes coil their semi-prehensile tail around the body of the capuchin(s) in contact. However, the underlying mechanisms of tail coiling around conspecifics have never been studied previously and we propose to examine the impact of sociodemographic factors on this peculiar behaviour. Through this quantitative study, we found that (1) all the individuals emit and receive tail coiling, (2) affiliation drives the extent to which this behaviour is emitted; (3) emission and reception of tail coiling are symmetrical, even if delayed in time; (4) tail coiling frequency depends on the food resource used to perform fur rubbing and (5) tail coiling does not increase the duration of fur-rubbing behaviour. Our data does not support the hypothesis that tail coiling allows the recruitment of conspecifics in fur rubbing behaviour; instead, this behaviour seems to be more associated with social allo-rubbing.https://journals.openedition.org/primatologie/3714reciprocityaffiliationallo-rubbingcollective behaviourkinshiprecruitment
spellingShingle Helene Meunier
Jean-Louis Deneubourg
Odile Petit
Tail coiling behaviour around conspecific’s body during fur rubbing in white-faced capuchins
Revue de Primatologie
reciprocity
affiliation
allo-rubbing
collective behaviour
kinship
recruitment
title Tail coiling behaviour around conspecific’s body during fur rubbing in white-faced capuchins
title_full Tail coiling behaviour around conspecific’s body during fur rubbing in white-faced capuchins
title_fullStr Tail coiling behaviour around conspecific’s body during fur rubbing in white-faced capuchins
title_full_unstemmed Tail coiling behaviour around conspecific’s body during fur rubbing in white-faced capuchins
title_short Tail coiling behaviour around conspecific’s body during fur rubbing in white-faced capuchins
title_sort tail coiling behaviour around conspecific s body during fur rubbing in white faced capuchins
topic reciprocity
affiliation
allo-rubbing
collective behaviour
kinship
recruitment
url https://journals.openedition.org/primatologie/3714
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AT jeanlouisdeneubourg tailcoilingbehaviouraroundconspecificsbodyduringfurrubbinginwhitefacedcapuchins
AT odilepetit tailcoilingbehaviouraroundconspecificsbodyduringfurrubbinginwhitefacedcapuchins