Factors influencing the stability of matrilineal dominance hierarchies were investigated in a feral troop of vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus) in Barbados. Changes in the matrilineal dominance hierarchy were investigated over a 12-year period (1979-1991). Matrilineal ranks remained unchanged for the first 7 years (stable period), reversed on several occasions over the next 3.5 years (unstable period), and have re-stabilised for a further 3.5 years to present date. The frequency distribution of non-matrilineal supports in different social contexts, the lower support frequency in unstable than stable periods, and in particular the high reciprocity evident in non-matrilineal support exchanges, suggest that non-matrilineal support is better explained by reciprocal altruism than by mutualism in vervet monkeys. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.69715 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Vermeer, Lotus Arrieta |
| Contributors | Hunte, W. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Biology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001358218, proquestno: AAIMM91813, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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