This article provides information on the phenomenon of alopecia in Japanese macaques, Macaca fuscata, in various environments and proposes a 3-step scoring system for a quantitative assessment of hair loss. Results su...This article provides information on the phenomenon of alopecia in Japanese macaques, Macaca fuscata, in various environments and proposes a 3-step scoring system for a quantitative assessment of hair loss. Results suggest that alopecia is commonly observed in Japanese macaques, with 20.5% of individuals showing head alopecia and 4.7% showing back alopecia across eight study groups. Alopecia was more commonly observed in adult females (30.8% individuals showing head alopecia and 15.3% showing back alopecia) than in other age-sex classes. Seasonal variation of back alopecia was noted, in particular, in- dividuals with patchy back hair were more frequently observed in winter than in summer. Seasonal variation was not observed in head hair. The distribution of alopecia was also different among study groups. The wild population generally had better hair con- dition than provisioned populations and captive populations. The present study used a non-invasive alopecia scoring system which can be a useful, rapid and non-invasive tool to monitor animal health and well-being at a population level展开更多
Grooming is essential to build social relationships in primates. Its importance is universal among animals from different ranks; however, rank-related differences in feeding patterns can lead to conflicts between feed...Grooming is essential to build social relationships in primates. Its importance is universal among animals from different ranks; however, rank-related differences in feeding patterns can lead to conflicts between feeding and grooming in low-ranking animals. Unifying the effects of dominance rank on feeding and grooming behaviors contributes to revealing the importance of grooming. Here, I tested whether the grooming behavior of low-ranking females were similar to that of high-ranking females despite differences in their feeding patterns. I followed 9 Japanese macaques Macaca fuscata fuscata adult females from the Arashiyama group, and analyzed the feeding patterns and grooming behaviors of low- and high-ranking females. Low-ranking females fed on natural foods away from the provision- ing site, whereas high-ranking females obtained more provisioned food at the site. Due to these differences in feeding patterns, low-ranking females spent less time grooming than high-ranking females. However, both low- and high-ranking females performed grooming around the provisioning site, which was linked to the number of neighboring individuals for low-ranking females and feeding on provisioned foods at the site for high-ranking females. The similarity in grooming area led to a range and diversity of grooming partners that did not differ with rank. Thus, low-ranking females can obtain small amounts of provisioned foods and perform grooming with as many partners around the provi- sioning site as high-ranking females. These results highlight the efforts made by low-ranking females to perform grooming and suggest the importance of grooming behavior in group-living primates.展开更多
基金Acknowledgments The study was supported by the Hun- dred Scholar Program (090013) of Sun Yat-sen University in China, Fund-In-Aid of JSPS (P09103) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (31000175). I am grateful to the Choshikei Monkey Park, the Takasakiyama Monkey Park, Jigokudani Monkey Park and Kyoto University for granting permission to carry out this research. I thank Mr Sam Hodgson from Tigress Productions for revising English. I thank all members of the Social Ecology Department and Center for Human Evolution Modeling Research at the Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University who gave helpful comments on the manuscript.
文摘This article provides information on the phenomenon of alopecia in Japanese macaques, Macaca fuscata, in various environments and proposes a 3-step scoring system for a quantitative assessment of hair loss. Results suggest that alopecia is commonly observed in Japanese macaques, with 20.5% of individuals showing head alopecia and 4.7% showing back alopecia across eight study groups. Alopecia was more commonly observed in adult females (30.8% individuals showing head alopecia and 15.3% showing back alopecia) than in other age-sex classes. Seasonal variation of back alopecia was noted, in particular, in- dividuals with patchy back hair were more frequently observed in winter than in summer. Seasonal variation was not observed in head hair. The distribution of alopecia was also different among study groups. The wild population generally had better hair con- dition than provisioned populations and captive populations. The present study used a non-invasive alopecia scoring system which can be a useful, rapid and non-invasive tool to monitor animal health and well-being at a population level
文摘Grooming is essential to build social relationships in primates. Its importance is universal among animals from different ranks; however, rank-related differences in feeding patterns can lead to conflicts between feeding and grooming in low-ranking animals. Unifying the effects of dominance rank on feeding and grooming behaviors contributes to revealing the importance of grooming. Here, I tested whether the grooming behavior of low-ranking females were similar to that of high-ranking females despite differences in their feeding patterns. I followed 9 Japanese macaques Macaca fuscata fuscata adult females from the Arashiyama group, and analyzed the feeding patterns and grooming behaviors of low- and high-ranking females. Low-ranking females fed on natural foods away from the provision- ing site, whereas high-ranking females obtained more provisioned food at the site. Due to these differences in feeding patterns, low-ranking females spent less time grooming than high-ranking females. However, both low- and high-ranking females performed grooming around the provisioning site, which was linked to the number of neighboring individuals for low-ranking females and feeding on provisioned foods at the site for high-ranking females. The similarity in grooming area led to a range and diversity of grooming partners that did not differ with rank. Thus, low-ranking females can obtain small amounts of provisioned foods and perform grooming with as many partners around the provi- sioning site as high-ranking females. These results highlight the efforts made by low-ranking females to perform grooming and suggest the importance of grooming behavior in group-living primates.