Interações sociais em um grupo de macaco-prego-galego Sapajus flavius (Schreber, 1774) sob competição induzida por alimento, em área de floresta atlântica na Paraíba

Abstract

Sapajus flavius (Schreber, 1774) neotropical primate rediscovered in 2006 in the northeastern Atlantic Forest, is Endangered. Little is known about the social behavior of this species, in particular about their agonistic and affiliative social interactions and the role of the dewlap, present in adult males. From January 2014 to January 2015, a group of approximately 70 individuals inhabiting a fragment of Atlantic Forest in Paraíba State (Brazil) was observed by the “all occurrences” method during an induced competition experiment by food (corn and sugar cane). A total of 76h 46min observations was obtained, these 43h 49min in experiment. Fifteen behaviors were recorded summing 651 records, divided into three behavioral categories: Affiliative, Agonistic and Other. Corn was the preferred food by adult males, which has proven priority access to food and exhibited higher frequency of agonistic behavior to juveniles. In turn, females received and issued more often the affiliative behaviors. The grooming was common among individuals who remained next, especially among the male-female dyads. The behavior of rubbing the dewlap was displayed by adult males using the dewlap to mark different substrates: tree trunk, experiment box, food, termite nests and other individual indicating that the dewlap can be a structure associated with the marking behavior in S. flavius for adult males. The results suggest that the reduced rates of aggression by physical contact, replaced by ritualized agonistic behaviors, may favor the conviviality in high density groups.