A comparison between affiliative and agonistic behaviours in wild and captive Sapajus libidinosus (Spix, 1823) (Mammalia, Primates, Cebidae)

Abstract

Organisms modulate the expression of their behaviours through environmental contexts. Several studies have suggested that the frequencies of social behaviours may differ between captive and free-living primates. In the present study, we compared the social behaviours displayed by captive and free-living groups of the bearded capuchin monkey (Sapajus libidinosus), describing and analysing their social behaviours. We observed through focal animal sampling 59 animals distributed in 10 social groups, analysing 191:45 h of videos of their behaviours. Captivity reduced the frequency of agonistic, but not of affiliative behaviours. Furthermore, neither group size nor sex could explain the overall variability in affiliative behaviour. We conclude that captivity has indeed an important impact only on some aspects of social behaviour, namely, on agonistic behaviours.