Distributed leadership in semifree-ranging white-faced capuchin monkeys

doi:10.1006/anbe.2003.2276

Animal Behaviour

Volume 66, Issue 6, December 2003, Pages 1045-1052

https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.2003.2276 Get rights and content

Abstract

We investigated the initiation of group movements in white-faced capuchin monkeys, Cebus capucinus, with the aim of determining whether a single individual with high dominance status consistently leads movements or whether leadership is distributed between group members. The group studied was reared in semifree-ranging conditions. A multivariate analysis followed by univariate analyses demonstrated that leadership was not concentrated on a single individual in this species. All individuals could initiate a collective movement. Nearly half of group members regularly succeeded in recruiting at least three followers. Although both sexes had similar rates of start attempts, females succeeded more frequently than males. We found no significant effect of the dominance status on the percentage of successful attempts. The use of a slow speed, looking back towards the other group members, or trills by the initiator heightened the likelihood of success in group movement initiation. An initiator starting from a core position in a clumped group was more successful than one starting from an edge position in a clumped group or from a dispersed group. Furthermore, the probability of successful start attempts was higher when the group remained stationary for a long period. Leadership in white-faced capuchins appears to be distributed between group members rather than exclusively concentrated on high-ranking individuals. Copyright 2003 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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^f1: Correspondence: O. Petit, Equipe d'Ethologie et Ecologie Comportementale des Primates, Centre d'Ecologie et Physiologie Energétiques, UPR CNRS 9010, 7 rue de l'Université, 67000 Strasbourg, France (email:[email protected] ).

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Regular ArticlesDistributed leadership in semifree-ranging white-faced capuchin monkeys

Abstract

Animal Behaviour

Animal Behaviour

Trends in Ecology and Evolution

Animal Behaviour

Advances in the Study of Behavior

Animal Behaviour

The evolution of social behavior

Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics

Observational study of behaviour: sampling methods

Behaviour

Vocal coordination of group movement among white-faced capuchin monkeys, Cebus capucinus

American Journal of Primatology

Social manipulation within and between troops mediates primate group movement

Use of trill vocalizations to coordinate troop movement among white-faced capuchins: a second field test

Behaviour

Self-organization in Biological Systems

A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales

Educational and Psychological Measurement

Evidence for an important social role of allogrooming in a platyrrhine primate

Animal Behaviour

Female coordination of group travel in wild Propithecus and Eulemur

International Journal of Primatology

Sex differences and intersexual relations in adult white-faced capuchins, Cebus capucinus

International Journal of Primatology

The behaviour of white-faced capucins (Cebus capucinus) at a dry-season waterhole

Primates

The capuchin monkey, genus Cebus

Group travel in social carnivores

Regular Articles
Distributed leadership in semifree-ranging white-faced capuchin monkeys