The Social Organization of a Semifree-Ranging Troop of Squirrel Monkeys (Saimiri sciureus)

Abstract

The social structure of a semifree-ranging troop of over 100 squirrel monkeys is described. The troop tended to travel as a single unit. There were no leaders or control animals in the troop, and social hierarchies were absent except among the troop’s 4 adult males during the mating season. The adult females functioned as the core of the social organization, since animals of all other age-sex classes showed greater attractions to them than vice versa. Although there was spacial structuring among individuals in local areas within the troop, the only consistent structuring of the troop as a whole resulted from the adult males’ traveling at the periphery of the troop and from several subadult males’ separating from the troop during nonmating season months.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 60 citations exist upstream.