IBS   24490
INSTITUTO DE BIOLOGIA SUBTROPICAL
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Do Artificial Food Markets Modify Partner Value in Wild Black Capuchin Monkeys?
Autor/es:
DI BITETTI, MARIO S.; PFOH, ROMINA; TIDDI, BARBARA; AGOSTINI, ILARIA
Lugar:
Oxford
Reunión:
Congreso; 8th European Federation of Primatology meeting & Primate Society of Great Britain 2019 meeting; 2019
Institución organizadora:
University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University
Resumen:
In group-living primates, behavioural exchanges have been reported to occur according to market-driven patterns where grooming is used as a currency in exchange for different commodities such as agonistic support and feeding tolerance. As in a marketplace, the law of supply and demand plays a crucial role in determining not only the specific trading dynamic but also the market value of trading partners. Primates pay more when partner value is higher (i.e. individuals groom longer those partners that exert higher control over resources). In this regard, a previous experimental study has showed that grooming received by two low-ranking females, trained to provide food to their group, shifted according to their artificially enhanced values, with the increase in grooming received by the first provider being reduced by the addition of a second provider. By adopting a similar experimental paradigm, this study tests whether the market value of experimentally induced food providers responds to variations in the supply/demand ratio in black capuchin monkeys (Sapajus nigritus). To do so, we created an artificial food market in a group of wild capuchins in Iguazu National Park, Argentina. In this market, a low-ranking female (provider 1) and a subadult male (provider 2) were trained to provide food to the entire group by opening two boxes containing banana pieces. Grooming interactions were collected across 3 phases: baseline (phase 0), only provider 1 (phase 1), and both providers (phase 2). We then analysed the duration of grooming received by the providers across the 3 phases, predicting that: i) grooming received will increase in favour of provider 1 from phase 0 to 1; and that ii) such an increase will be reduced by the addition of provider 2 in phase 2. Results indicate that grooming received by provider 1 significantly increased during phase 1, as predicted by the BM theory; however, such an increase was not reduced by the introduction of a second provider.