Post-conflict Behaviors of Wild Gelada Monkeys (Theropithecus gelada) at Guassa, Ethiopia

Post-conflict behaviors are a crucial component of primate sociality, yet are difficult to study in the wild. We evaluated the presence and timing of reconciliation, victim-solicited and unsolicited third-party affiliation, and secondary and redirected aggression following observed agonistic interactions among 38 wild gelada monkeys (Theropithecus gelada) in eight one-male, multi-female units at Guassa, Ethiopia, from April to August 2018. We also report background rates of aggression and patterns of agonistic interactions and post-conflict behaviours among wild geladas relative to possible mediating factors for each conflict, including social rank disparity, kinship type, sex, age class, conflict intensity, and conflict decidedness. Across 55 post-conflict and 55 subsequent matched-control focal follows, we found no evidence for post-conflict reconciliation, third-party affiliation, secondary aggression, or redirected aggression. These findings contrast with previous studies of captive geladas, which find that individuals often reconcile after fights and frequently exhibit unsolicited third-party affiliation when reconciliation does not occur. Our results from wild geladas point to possible populational differences in behavioral tendencies arising from variable space, time, social grouping, and/or food availability constraints. Our findings also reveal potential limitations in applying identical data collection protocols across environmental contexts and underscore the importance of creating generalizable cross-context metrics to better understand, and contextualize, the diversity of post-conflict behavioral mechanisms underpinning primate sociality in geladas and other group-living primates冲突后行为是灵长类社会性（primate sociality）的核心构成要素，但在野外环境中开展相关研究颇具挑战。2018年4月至8月，研究团队于埃塞俄比亚古萨（Guassa）地区的8个单雄多雌社群单元（one-male, multi-female units）中，针对38只野生狮尾猴（Theropithecus gelada）的已观测到的争斗互动（agonistic interactions），评估了和解（reconciliation）、受害者主动发起的第三方亲和行为（victim-solicited third-party affiliation）、自发第三方亲和行为（unsolicited third-party affiliation）以及次级攻击（secondary aggression）与转向攻击（redirected aggression）的存在性与发生时序。本研究同时报告了野生狮尾猴的攻击行为背景发生率，以及围绕每场冲突的潜在调节因素（mediating factors）下的争斗互动与冲突后行为模式，这些调节因素包括社会等级差异（social rank disparity）、亲缘类型（kinship type）、性别、年龄组（age class）、冲突强度（conflict intensity）与冲突结局（conflict decidedness）。在55次冲突后观察与55次匹配对照的焦点跟随观察（matched-control focal follows）中，研究未发现任何和解、第三方亲和行为、次级攻击或转向攻击的相关证据。上述研究结果与此前针对圈养狮尾猴的研究形成鲜明对比——后者发现个体常在争斗后完成和解，且在未发生和解的场景下会频繁展现自发第三方亲和行为。本研究针对野生狮尾猴的结果提示，行为倾向可能存在种群差异，该差异源于空间、时间、社会社群结构以及/或食物可获得性等限制因素的不同。本研究结果同时揭示，在不同环境背景下采用完全一致的数据收集方案可能存在潜在局限，并强调构建可跨情境推广的量化指标的重要性，以期更好地理解并阐释狮尾猴及其他群居灵长类赖以维系社会性的冲突后行为机制多样性。