Emerging Entanglements: A Multispecies Ethnoprimatological Exploration of Human-Monkey Coexistence in Saint Kitts

This dissertation explored human and African green monkey (Chlorocebus sabeus) entanglements in the island of Saint Kitts. It asked: how do emerging multispecies assemblages shift and shape the social lives of humans and primates? I focused on a neighborhood, Calypso Bay, where residents and workers were in frequent contact with a troop of green monkeys to explore how humans and monkeys shaped each other’s lives. To do so, I combined socioecological, political ecology, and multispecies theories. This combination of frameworks and associated methodologies allowed for an examination of human-monkey entanglements from the perspectives of both humans and monkeys.

I used ethology, cortisol measurements, and ethnography to answer: (1) How are green monkeys behaviorally and physiologically responding to their proximity to humans? And (2) How do sociocultural and political factors shape how people perceive the monkeys they interact with? Results demonstrated that some behaviors, like play or grooming, were more likely to occur in areas of the neighborhood depending on the area’s likelihood of human interaction. Behaviors related to aggression or dominance were not associated with spatial area and, by proxy, likelihood of human interaction. Cortisol assessments revealed a positive relationship between likelihood of human interaction and cortisol levels. This suggests there may be aspects of life with humans that activate the stress response.

Results also demonstrated that sociocultural and political dimensions differentially shaped how residents and workers of Calypso Bay perceived monkeys and their behaviors. Ethnographic analyses of monkey behaviors revealed that the troop was learning how to navigate these different human social landscapes. Social navigation is related to primate psychosocial stress, so this navigation may be an underlying cause of higher cortisol levels in troops that live near humans. These results have important implications for human-primate interfaces globally, as new human-primate entanglements are emerging at a rapid rate.