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Applying Quantitative Genetic Methods to Primate Social Behavior

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Abstract

Increasingly, behavioral ecologists have applied quantitative genetic methods to investigate the evolution of behaviors in wild animal populations. The promise of quantitative genetics in unmanaged populations opens the door for simultaneous analysis of inheritance, phenotypic plasticity, and patterns of selection on behavioral phenotypes all within the same study. In this article, we describe how quantitative genetic techniques provide studies of the evolution of behavior with information that is unique and valuable. We outline technical obstacles for applying quantitative genetic techniques that are of particular relevance to studies of behavior in primates, especially those living in noncaptive populations, e.g., the need for pedigree information, non-Gaussian phenotypes, and demonstrate how many of these barriers are now surmountable. We illustrate this by applying recent quantitative genetic methods to spatial proximity data, a simple and widely collected primate social behavior, from adult rhesus macaques on Cayo Santiago. Our analysis shows that proximity measures are consistent across repeated measurements on individuals (repeatable) and that kin have similar mean measurements (heritable). Quantitative genetics may hold lessons of considerable importance for studies of primate behavior, even those without a specific genetic focus.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Caribbean Primate Research Center (CPRC) for the permission to undertake research on Cayo Santiago, along with Bonn Aure and Jacqueline Buhl, who assisted in data collection, and Elizabeth Maldonado, Angelina Ruiz-Lambides, and Janis Gonzalez-Martinez, who provided access to the CPRC pedigree database. L. J. N. Brent also thanks Michael Platt for mentorship during the collection of these data. L. J. N. Brent was funded by fellowships awarded by the Duke Center for Interdisciplinary Decision Sciences. Additional funds were provided by NIMH grants no. R01-MH096875 and R01-MH089484. The CPRC is supported by a grant no. 8-P40 OD012217-25 from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) and the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP) of the National Institutes of Health. G. E. Blomquist is supported by the University of Missouri Department of Anthropology and Research Council. G. E. Blomquist also thanks L. J. N. Brent and Noah Snyder-Mackler for the invitation to participate in the International Primatological Society symposium leading to this special issue.

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  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA

    Gregory E. Blomquist

  2. Duke Institute of Brain Sciences, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, 27708, USA

    Lauren J. N. Brent

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Blomquist, G.E., Brent, L.J.N. Applying Quantitative Genetic Methods to Primate Social Behavior. Int J Primatol 35, 108–128 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-013-9709-5

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