White capuchin cash registers (photo courtesy of Susan Perry)
New research findings reveal that companionship between female and male capuchin monkeys helps them live longer. Understanding the strength of female companionship among monkeys may help answer some of the most puzzling questions about our behavior.
“As humans, we assume there is some benefit to social interactions, but it’s really hard to measure the success of our behavioral strategies,” field primatologist Susan Perry, a UCLA professor of anthropology, explains in a university release. “Why do we invest so much in our relationships with others? Does it lead to a longer life span? Does it lead to greater reproductive success? It requires a tremendous effort to measure this in humans and other animals.”
Perry and her team have been documenting the daily lives of many primates in the forests of Costa Rica since the 1990s. While chimpanzees and orangutans are humans’ closest relatives, after several 13-hour days of watching the primates, Perry noticed that the white-faced capuchin monkey has similar social behaviors to humans. This includes a complex hierarchy that affects relationships and behavior.
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The authors of the study collected 18 years of data including the social interactions between white capuchin monkeys, their behavior towards males and monkeys of all sexes and ages. Their biggest discovery was that mature capuchins that were sociable with other mature females tended to live longer. Frequent social behavior exhibited by females included grooming, foraging nearby, and intervening in conflicts, either by fighting, chasing, or making aggressive postures and vocalizations to deter unwanted pests or suitors.
While the researchers found no benefit to maintaining a heterosexual relationship, the researchers speculate that there may have been some benefits for some females to maintaining friendships with men. While some evidence suggests that being sociable in general helped the monkeys live longer, ultimately it was the companionship between females that had the greatest survival benefit.
A separate study by the team also found that white-faced capuchin monkeys engage in socially learned human-like rituals. These included monkeys cupping a social partner’s face, opening a friend’s hand, and clasping each other’s hands. Some of the rituals lasted half an hour, even if they seemed uncomfortable – like putting a finger in another monkey’s mouth or eye.
The authors of the study believe that these strange rituals may help test the quality of a friendship or alliance. They were mostly done in couples who rarely interacted, suggesting that these actions also confirmed the status of friendship. Perry says bond testing in primates may have been the evolutionary precursor to humans developing group-oriented practices like hanging out at the bar after work.
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