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Vigilance in a Cooperatively Breeding Primate.

Mojca Stojan-Dolar, Eckhard W Heymann

International Journal of Primatology

|February 23, 2010

Summary

Vigilance in mustached tamarins (Saguinus mystax) primarily serves predator detection, with group living enhancing safety. Social dynamics also influence vigilance, potentially aiding group cohesion and mixed-species group formation.

Area of Science:

Behavioral Ecology
Primate Social Behavior
Vigilance Studies

Background:

Group living in animals often confers advantages, such as enhanced collective vigilance against predators.
Mustached tamarins (Saguinus mystax) are cooperatively breeding New World primates known to form stable mixed-species groups.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how individual activity influences vigilance patterns in mustached tamarins.
To examine the social component of vigilance within their cooperative and nonaggressive social structure.
To determine the primary functions of vigilance in this species.

Main Methods:

Observed 44 individual mustached tamarins across 3 mixed-species and 2 single-species groups in varying population densities.
Recorded vigilance behavior in relation to 11 potential influencing factors and individual activities.

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Analyzed vigilance patterns based on group composition, activity, and environmental factors like home range overlap.

Main Results:

Vigilance significantly varied with individual activities, with different factors affecting vigilance during different behaviors.
Vigilance decreased near conspecifics and heterospecifics during feeding, and in larger mixed-species groups during resting.
Increased vigilance was observed in home range overlap areas in a high-density population; no evidence of vigilance against food stealing or aggression was found.

Conclusions:

The predominant function of vigilance in mustached tamarins is predator detection, supported by decreased vigilance in the presence of others.
Vigilance may also contribute to maintaining group cohesion, particularly in larger single-species groups.
The influence of heterospecifics on vigilance suggests a role in the evolution of mixed-species tamarin groups.