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'Chalyan VG, Meishvili NV, 2000: The Cases of Cooperation and Altruism in Free-Ranging Hamadryas Baboons. Anthropologie (Brno) 38, 2: 187-192'. |
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| Abstract | | The cases of cooperation and altruism were observed in the troop of hamadryas baboons living in free-ranging conditions in Gumista Reserve from 1974. Altruism and cooperation of these animals have been studied by registration of all cases of such behaviour as well as by experimental modelling of such conditions. The observations showed that hamadryas baboons are characterized by high level of cooperative activity which is the regular component of their behaviour in extreme conditions, though it is also noted in their everyday life. Most often the cooperative behaviour has been registered in the situations of defence of the troop members waiting for the members which left behind the group, and also during the cooperative investigative activity. The investigative activity has been seen in appearance of new subjects in the field of vision, which were not so dangerous for them (not poisonous snakes for example). In such situation all juveniles were the most active in their cooperative actions, regardless of their kin relations or belonging to some clan or harem. Waiting for the troop members keeping behind has been seen many times during the troop movement. This behaviour has most been observed in males waiting for females and may be considered in this case as a fragment of herding behaviour. However, this behaviour was directed not only to females, it could also be seen towards other individuals. The cooperative actions during the defence in hamadryas baboons have been recorded in the situations of danger for all troop members and also during intragroup conflicts between the individuals. The number of animals involved in the defensive actions was variable from several individuals to all the troop members depending on the extent of danger or the severity of conflict. Among the defenders the most active reactions were seen in the animals most closely related to victim individuals - kin related ones as well as the members of the same sub-unit, first of all those of harems or clans. And, in this case, the differences in the behaviour of different rank monkeys have been noted. Young and low-ranking animals showed mainly a relatively harmless distant aggression towards the enemy and the complaint-appellation to the higher-ranking individuals. On the contrary, higher-ranking animals including adult and subadult males and some ofthe females demonstrated more severe forms of aggression and attacked the enemies. As a whole, the tendency and extent of cooperative actions in hamadryas baboons during the defence correlate rather strongly with the hypothesis of kin selection. It must be noted that in some cases the altruistic and cooperative actions in hamadryas baboons might be characterized using such categories as "selflessness" and "intelligence". | | | | Keywords | | Hamadryas baboons - Free-ranging conditions - Cooperation - Defence | | |
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