Grooming coercion and the post-conflict trading of social services in wild Barbary macaques

McFarland, R ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8245-9269 and Majolo, B, 2011. Grooming coercion and the post-conflict trading of social services in wild Barbary macaques. PLoS ONE, 6 (10): e26893. ISSN 1932-6203

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Abstract

In animal and human societies, social services such as protection from predators are often exchanged between group members. The tactics that individuals display to obtain a service depend on its value and on differences between individuals in their capacity to aggressively obtain it. Here we analysed the exchange of valuable social services (i.e. grooming and relationship repair) in the aftermath of a conflict, in wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus). The relationship repair function of post-conflict affiliation (i.e. reconciliation) was apparent in the victim but not in the aggressor. Conversely, we found evidence for grooming coercion by the aggressor; when the victim failed to give grooming soon after a conflict they received renewed aggression from the aggressor. We argue that post-conflict affiliation between former opponents can be better described as a trading of social services rather than coercion alone, as both animals obtain some benefits (i.e. grooming for the aggressor and relationship repair for the victim). Our study is the first to test the importance of social coercion in the aftermath of a conflict. Differences in competitive abilities can affect the exchange of services and the occurrence of social coercion in animal societies. This may also help explain the variance between populations and species in their social behaviour and conflict management strategies.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	PLoS ONE
Creators:	McFarland, R. and Majolo, B.
Publisher:	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date:	26 October 2011
Volume:	6
Number:	10
ISSN:	1932-6203
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1371/journal.pone.0026893 DOI 1492516 Other
Rights:	©2011 McFarland, Majolo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	16 Nov 2021 12:14
Last Modified:	16 Nov 2021 12:14
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/44816

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