• History of Field Primatology
• Variables: the traits you measure when you do research
• Examples of variables from primatology
• Ethograms and methods for recording behaviors
• The goal of research: To understand relationships among quantifiable variables
• Science: using theories to come up with hypothesized relationships among variables, then collecting and analyzing data on those variables to see if that predicted relationship exists, then replicating
• Correlation vs. Causation

•
Scientific studies of primates in their natural environments (
“in the field”
)
• Before 1929: no scientific studies
•
1929-1950 psychologists interested
– Captive vs. wild
– Cognitive comparisons to humans
•
1950-1959: Washburn wanted to understand human origins by incorporating
– evolutionary theory
– newly-acquired hominid record fossil data
– knowledge of living people
• 1960-1975: descriptive primatological studies
– monkey sociality depends on kinship
– monkeys display protocultural behavior
– “focal follow”-style studies
– Leaky
•
1975 to NOW: scientific, theory-driven primatology: Altmann paper

• Physical, Ecological, Behavioral, Social
• Can be measured at different levels: individual, group, or species
– Age, sex, size
– Anatomy
– Hormones
– Parasite load
– Genetic factors
– Feeding rates
– Locomotion
– Dominance rank
– Mating frequency
– Grooming rates
– Threats (e.g., eye flashes)
– Group composition (e.g., 10 males, 15 females, 8 infants)
– Territory size
– Day range
– Birth rate
– Sex ratio
– Age ratios
– Habitat
– Average age at first reproduction
– Vulnerability to predation
– Diet (folivore, insectivore)
– Philopatry vs. dispersal
– Activity patterns
– Hierarchical vs. egalitarian
– Parity

Spider monkey with four fingers
(not pentadactylism)

Vertical clinging and leaping

Female human
Male drill

(and groomer vs. groomee)

Egalitarian muriqui
Hierarchical hamadryas

Nocturnal owl monkey

• There are often different ways to measure a variable you are interested in
• Variables can be measured at different levels, such as intraindividual, inter-individual, group, population, or species levels
• Variables can be quantified or categorical
• Variables can be discreet or continuous
• Operationalize: to define a concept or variable so that it can be measured or expressed quantitatively
• Choose variables with high variance!
• In the end, ALL variables are quantified, even categorical ones like sex

• The behavioral repertoire exhibited by a species
• Different species, different ethogram
• Helps you quantify an animal’s behaviors
• Checklists and codes
• Well-established for many species

Common Marmoset Ethogram:
Agonism
Tufts-flick (TF)
Frown (FR)
Cuff (CU)
Chase (CH)
Fight (FI)
Attack (AT)
Snap bite (SB)
Submit (SU)
Continuous submit
(CS)
Retreat (RE) rapid back-and-forth movement of ear tufts lower eyebrows, furl brow, and turn down corners of mouth while staring swift, superficial blow or scratch performed aggressively pursue partner, with one or both animals exhibiting aggression and/or submission (not play) grapple aggressively with partner(s), involving biting, clawing, and wrestling lunge at or pounce on partner aggressively; may or may not result in fight direct a single short, sharp bite at partner flatten ear tufts and/or facial grimace (partially open mouth with corners of mouth retracted, exposing lower and sometimes upper teeth) and/or slit eyes (eyelids half closed) continuous submit; start scoring after 5 sec starting from a stationary position, move at lest one body length away from another animal within 1 sec of the other animal establishing proximity (within 10 cm)

Common Marmoset Ethogram:
Play
Play (PL) two or more animals lunge, grapple, wrestle or chase for at lest 1 sec in absence of aggression or intense submission; play face may or may not be present
Solicit play (SP) direct play face toward, pounce on, or initiate grapple with partner, in absence of ongoing play with partner
Play face
(PF) open mouth without retraction of the lips
Join play
(JP)
End play
(EP) join ongoing play bout between two or more partners discontinue all social play for _> 3 sec
Social play (SO) social interactions involving non-aggressive physical contact with other individuals; high activity

Common Marmoset Ethogram:
Infant-Associated behaviors
Climb on (ON) climb onto any part of partner's body so that all four limbs are on partner
Solicit climb on (SC) position body directly above infant and/or pull infant onto body; may or may not result in infant climbing onto partner's body
Climb off (OF) voluntary climb off partner's body after having all four limbs on partner
Push off/reject (PO) prevent juvenile from climbing onto body, or rub or otherwise force juvenile off body
Nurse (NU) have mouth on female's nipple for _> 1 sec
End nursing
(EN) discontinue nursing posture

Common Marmoset Ethogram:
Other Social Behaviors
Sniff/nuzzle (SN)
Anogenital inspect (AI)
Groom (GR)
Sexual solicit (SS)
Mount (MO)
Initiate huddle (IH)
Leave huddle (LH)
Object steal (OS)
Attempt object steal (AO) orient face against or toward partner, excluding anogenital region orient face against or toward anogenital region of partner, or use hands or mouth to investigate anogenital region of partner; includes anogenital groom use hands and/or mouth to pick through fur and/or mouth of partner, excluding anogenital region stare at partner with ear tufts flattened and eyes slit climb on partner's back from behind and grip partner around waist and legs; may be accompanied by pelvic thrusting establish passive, torso-torso body contact with partner, with both animals remaining stationary and in passive contact for at least 3 sec terminate huddle after at least 3 sec of passive, torso-torso body contact during which both partners remained stationary take any non-food object from hands or mouth of partner attempt but fail to take non-food object from hands or mouth of partner

Common Marmoset Ethogram:
Food-Associated Behaviors
Food steal
(ST) take any food from hands or mouth of partner
Attempt food steal (AF) attempt but fail to take food from hands or mouth of partner
Share food
(SH) eat from a food source from which partner is simultaneously eating or occupying without removing any food from partner's mouth or hands
New food
(NF) eat from a food source which no other animal is currently holding, eating from, or occupying

Common Marmoset Ethogram:
Individual Behaviors
Bristle strut (BS) arching posture and/or strut locomotion and/or general
Piloerection
Scentmark (SM) rub or drag anogenital, suprapubic, or sternal region along substrate, object, or partner
Genital present (GP) raise tail to expose genitals
Object manipulation (OM) sniff, bite, chew, gouge, handle, pounce on, grapple with, or otherwise manipulate inanimate object, excluding food items and water bottle, for at least 1 sec

• Variables: the traits you measure when you do research
• Examples of variables from primatology
• Ethograms and methods for recording behaviors
• The goal of research: To understand relationships among quantifiable variables
• Science: using theories to come up with hypothesized relationships among variables, then collecting and analyzing data on those variables to see if that predicted relationship exists, then replicating
• Correlation vs. Causation

Y
Person Height
(inches)
I
J
E
F
G
H
A
B
C
D
60
66
63
62
65
67
72
70
71
Y
68
101
125
120
110
Weight
)
(pounds
120
130
170
162
175
X
145
Weight
X

Y
Positive,
Linear
Weight
X

Person Hours since breakfast
I
J
F
G
H
C
D
A
B
E
1
2
4
1
2.5
3
3
4
6
3
6
4
4
2
5
3
9
7
Fullness
(1-10 scale)
10
8
Y X
Fullness: 1 = famished…5 = just right…10 = stuffed
Y
Fullness
X

Y
Negative,
Linear
Fullness
X

I
J
F
G
H
C
D
E
A
B
Person Height
(inches)
18
24
49
62
40
65
63
68
62
70
Y
Y
Age (years)
25
36
55
1
2
12
17
8
44
37
X
Age
X

Y
Positive,
Curvilinear
Age
X

Y
I
J
F
G
H
C
D
E
A
B
Person Height
(inches)
65
60
68
72
70
60
64
69
62
70
Y
Sex: 0 = female, 1 = male
Sex
0
0
1
0
1
1
1
0
0
1
X
0 Sex 1
X

64
68
Bars represent averages
Female (0) Male (1)
Sex

• Lots of kinds of relationships
• Relationships are also called associations, correlations
• When there is a relationship, one variable “predicts” or
“explains” the other variable
• Can be more than two variables
(“multivariate”; 3D graph instead of 2D)
• Categorical variables okay too
• Graphing is a tool to help you visually understand mathematical relationships between variables

Age
Sex
Size
Anatomy
Hormones
Parasite load
Genetic factors
Feeding rates
Locomotion
Dominance rank
Mating frequency
Grooming rates
Threats
Group composition
Territory size
Day range
Birth rate
Sex ratio
Age ratios
Habitat
Age at first reproduction
Vulnerability to predation
Diet
Activity patterns
Hierarchical vs. egalitarian
Parity
Thumbs
Canine Length

Good

• Karl Popper advocated empirical falsifiability as the criterion for distinguishing scientific theory from nonscience
– Freud
– Einstein
– Oprah
• Is the predicted relationship between your variables falsifiable?
• "falsifiable" does not mean "false"

• If other people do your study, do they get the same results?
• If not, your conclusion about your hypothesis was probably wrong
• This leads to the progression of science
• Not perfect in primatology (different monkeys, different times, different places), but researchers try to recreate the environment of an original test

• What is a theory?
– Not a hunch
– Self-consistent
– Supported by prior evidence
– Predictive
– Testable
– Subject to corrections
– Broader than hypotheses
• Is your hypothesis consistent with relevant theories?
• In the case of this Primate Behavioral Ecology, one of the main relevant theories is Evolutionary Theory

•
They observe natural process until they think they see a pattern in the events they are observing.
• They define questions to investigate based on their observations. These questions often arise from findings of earlier research or even research done by other scientists (and citizen scientists).
•
They develop hypotheses (testable guesses) to try to answer their questions.
•
They systematically collect and then analyze information ( data ) to test the hypotheses.
• They look at the results , then come to conclusions about whether their hypotheses are correct (supported or not supported).
• Replicability: usually people don’t try to falsify their own hypotheses, but other scientists do, and this leads to a progression in science
• Often, they ask even more questions based on what they have observed; theories become refined and approach trueness over time