CARDIAC AND BEHAVIORAL-RESPONSES TO HUMANS IN AN ADULT FEMALE JAPANESE MONKEY (MACACA-FUSCATA)

The effects of the appearance of a human on the mean arterial blood pr essure (BP) and behavior of an adult female Japanese monkey were exami ned to clarify whether or not the monkey discriminated between men and women, and between caretakers and strangers. Each human (5 male and 6 female caretakers; 5 male and 6 female strangers) sat facing the monk ey whose BP was recorded with an unrestrained telemetry system. Behavi or of the monkey was recorded on videotape and BP was measured for 10 minutes prior to the appearance of the human (pre-appearance stage) an d for 10 minutes during which the human appeared and faced the monkey (appearance stage). The BP and the frequency of alert behavior increas ed immediately after the appearance of a human. The increase in the BP and the duration during which the BP was high were significantly grea ter with men than with women. The duration of alert behavior in the be ginning of the appearance stage was longer with men than with women an d its duration at the beginning of the appearance stage was longer wit h strangers than with caretakers. These results indicate that presence of a human influenced the monkey physiologically and behaviorally and that she discriminated between men and women, and between caretakers and strangers.