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Oxytocin and pair compatibility in adult male rhesus macaques ( Macaca mulatta )
- Source :
- Am J Primatol
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- Wiley, 2019.
-
Abstract
- Pair housing is considered one of the best ways of promoting psychological wellbeing for caged macaques. However, incompatible partnerships can result in stress or aggression. Though previous studies have analyzed the role of variables such as age, weight, gender, and temperament on pair compatibility, few have examined the relationship between physiological parameters and pair compatibility. Oxytocin is known to promote prosocial nonsexual behavior in various primate species and may serve as an indicator of pair compatibility. In this study, we examined the association between peripheral oxytocin levels and prosocial behaviors in isosexual pairs of male rhesus macaques. We hypothesized that animals that demonstrated high levels of prosocial behaviors would have higher oxytocin levels than those showing low levels of the behavior. In addition, to elucidate the relationship between oxytocin and compatibility, we compared peripheral oxytocin between the highly affiliative animals and single-housed males identified as having multiple unsuccessful pair attempts with multiple partners. We collected plasma oxytocin on 40 pairs of monkeys that had lived together for at least 1 month and 20 single-housed animals. Further, we simultaneously collected behavioral data on the pairs, recording prosocial interactions (e.g., groom, play). Oxytocin varied among individuals, but was highly correlated between members of a pair (r = 0.58, p
- Subjects :
- Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Adult male
media_common.quotation_subject
Animal Welfare
Oxytocin
Article
Internal medicine
biology.animal
medicine
Animals
Primate
Social Behavior
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
media_common
biology
Aggression
biology.organism_classification
Housing, Animal
Macaca mulatta
Rhesus macaque
Behavioral data
Endocrinology
Prosocial behavior
Animal Science and Zoology
Temperament
medicine.symptom
medicine.drug
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 10982345 and 02752565
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- American Journal of Primatology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....de09f9b6d7b8f8c2ce9fe68da1a59348