Social Affiliation And Behavioral Development Of Rhesus Macaque In Mt. Taihangshan Area, Jiyuan, China

As the highest evolutionary taxa in animals, non-human parimate species are closely linked with human in evolutionary history. Primate species are threatened due to habitat degradation and habitat loss etc., and how to effectively protect and manage them is catching more and more attentions. Rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) is the most widely distributed non-human primates, and mainly distributed in Southeast Asia. Taihangshan macaque (M. m. tcheliensis) is currently only distributed in sourthern region of Mt. Taihangshan and Mt. Zhongtiaoshan (N34°54’～35°16’, E112°02’～112°52’), and is the highest latituede population of wild rhesus macaques. To understand the social affilition and behavioral development of wild Taihangshan macaques, during February2011to December2012, taking one wild troop of Taihangshan macaque (troop Wangwu1, WW-1) as target group, I investigated social affiliation and behavioral development of rhesus macaque, and the main results are as follows:1) Huddling among individuals of troop WW-1were categorized into5huddling groups, and huddling behavior was more frequently observed in adult females inside given unit (84.21%); individual age and sex significantly influenced frequency of huddling behaviors. The sexual dimorphism of huddling behavior firstly occurred in subadult period; proportions of social affiliations happened between mother and offspring was significantly larger than that of the other huddling types. Within Taihangshan macaque society, social affiliation exhibited a web-like structure based on matrilineal unit, and that mother-offspring link was the strongest affiliation inside unit.2) Resting behavior often occurred at the age of1year old, and there were significant differences between male and female individuals in different age groups; moving behavior often occurred at the age of2years old, and it took more time to move of males than females; the time of foraging grew with the growth of age until5years old, and there was no significant difference between males and females; female individuals took more time social grooming than males, and the time of social grooming at the age of4and5years old was significantly more than other age groups; there was no significant difference among males; males took more time playing than females; playing time of male individuals at the age of2and3years old was more than other age groups, and playing time of female individuals gradually decreased after2-year-old unit5-year-old. The individual’s age and gender of macaque significantly affected the different behaviors of the individual activity budgets, and behavioral development of sexual dimorphism in adolescence is extremely significant.3) Age and sex of individuals significantly affected the frequency of social playing, and the sexual dimorphism of social playing started in adolescence; the age, sex and kinship of play partner significantly affected the choice of play partner; the chance of teenagers were selected as play partner was more than infants and adults; there was no significant difference for infants to choose play partners, and females often played with infants while males preferred playing with older teenagers; macaques preferred to play with kinship individuals,so kinship was a significant impact for individuals to choose their playing partners.