LONGITUDINAL-STUDY OF DOMINANCE RELATIONS AMONG CAPTIVE PATAS MONKEYS

Eight and a half years of dominance relations within a captive group o f patas monkeys were analyzed. It was found that matrilineal kinship s ignificantly influenced individuals' ranks. In contrast, with the exce ption of certain intramatriline changes, increasing age had no predict able effect on overall rank, at least for females (this was untestable for males). Offspring typically challenged maternal dominance and in eight of twelve dyads, offspring either rose fully over their mothers (three cases, all daughters) or at least achieved dominance ambiguity with them. Additionally, two of the four younger sisters with an oppor tunity to rise in rank over an older sister did so. The group dominanc e hierarchy was unstable for 75% of the study due to a combination of agonistically induced and demographically induced rank changes. Concen tration of the highest ranks in a single matriline showed a stronger a ssociation with group hierarchy stability than did the presence of an adult, nonnatal male. Group hierarchy stability was associated with in creased affiliation (sitting close and sitting touching), but otherwis e there were no behavioral correlations. Individuals' ranks within the group hierarchy were unrelated to their chances of being wounded or h aving diarrhea. Adult females' ranks were over twice as stable as the group hierarchy (57.1% stability), but stability/instability was not c orrelated with any behavioral changes. Available evidence suggests tha t dominance relations play only a minor role in the organization of pa tas monkeys' intragroup behavior. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.