Let’s unite in play! Play modality and group membership in wild geladas

Gallo, Alessandro; Caselli, Marta; Norscia, Ivan; Palagi, Elisabetta

doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2021.104338

Cited by 20 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…Playful patterns can therefore be defined as advantageous or disadvantageous as a function of the different domains in which they originate (Burghardt 2005;Pellis and Pellis 2009). To maintain a playful mood, individuals can alternate their advantageous/disadvantageous actions to make the session less ambiguous and well balanced (Gallo et al 2021). In this respect, when a player gives the playmate the possibility to counterattack (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Different OMUs spend most of their time in proximity thus favouring the formation of fluid groups of infants and juveniles belonging to both sexes (i.e. play units) that engage in high levels of playful contacts (wild, Dunbar and Dunbar 1975;Gallo et al 2021;captive, Palagi andMancini 2009, 2011). Hence, play is the only positive interaction linking subjects belonging to different OMUs (Dunbar and Dunbar 1975).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence, play is the only positive interaction linking subjects belonging to different OMUs (Dunbar and Dunbar 1975). Such playful encounters can vary in their competitive elements according to the level of familiarity of players (Gallo et al 2021). Among primates, geladas possess one of the richest repertoires of facial expressions (Dunbar and Dunbar 1975;Leone et al 2014;Lazow and Bergman 2020;Zanoli et al 2021) that are performed in a highly flexible way under different contexts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The face never lies: facial expressions and mimicry modulate playful interactions in wild geladas

Gallo

Zanoli

Caselli

et al. 2022

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Play fighting, the most common form of social play in mammals, is a fertile field to investigate the use of visual signals in animals’ communication systems. Visual signals can be exclusively emitted during play (e.g. play faces, PF, context-dependent signals), or they can be released under several behavioural domains (e.g. lip-smacking, LS, context-independent signals). Rapid facial mimicry (RFM) is the involuntary rapid facial congruent response produced after perceiving others’ facial expressions. RFM leads to behavioural and emotional synchronisation that often translates into the most balanced and longest playful interactions. Here, we investigate the role of playful communicative signals in geladas (Theropithecus gelada). We analysed the role of PF and LS produced by wild immature geladas during play fighting. We found that PFs, but not LS, were particularly frequent during the riskiest interactions such as those including individuals from different groups. Furthermore, we found that RFM (PF→PF) was highest when playful offensive patterns were not biased towards one of the players and when the session was punctuated by LS. Under this perspective, the presence of context-independent signals such as LS may be useful in creating an affiliative mood that enhances communication and facilitates most cooperative interactions. Indeed, we found that sessions punctuated by the highest frequency of RFM and LS were also the longest ones. Whether the complementary use of PF and LS is strategically guided by the audience or is the result of the emotional arousal experienced by players remains to be investigated. Significance Statement Facial expressions and their rapid replication by an observer are fundamental communicative tools during social contacts in human and non-human animals. Play fighting is one of the most complex forms of social interactions that can easily lead to misunderstanding if not modulated through an accurate use of social signals. Wild immature geladas are able to manage their play sessions thus limiting the risk of aggressive escalation. While playing with unfamiliar subjects belonging to other groups, they make use of a high number of play faces. Moreover, geladas frequently replicate others’ play faces and emit facial expressions of positive intent (i.e. lip-smacking) when engaging in well-balanced long play sessions. In this perspective, this “playful facial chattering” creates an affiliative mood that enhances communication and facilitates most cooperative interactions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The face never lies: facial expressions and mimicry modulate playful interactions in wild geladas

Gallo

Zanoli

Caselli

et al. 2022

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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show abstract

“…The findings on the possible roles of play fighting in geladas have been recently validated in the wild, although the study on natural populations provided a less clear-cut picture of the phenomenon [77]. The authors found that the competitive nature characterizing play fighting in this species can change according to the group membership of the players involved.…”

Section: Theme 3-field and Captivity As Reciprocal Providing Grounds: Communication And Coordination In Geladasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Data collected in the wild should allow an understanding if the use of play faces and the rapid mimicry phenomenon can be modulated at a higher scale level according to the group membership of the playing subjects. Since play modality differs between intra-and inter-OMU players [77], we would expect that play signals can be adjusted as a function of the more cooperative or competitive nature of the interaction.…”

Section: Theme 3-field and Captivity As Reciprocal Providing Grounds: Communication And Coordination In Geladasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging Captive and Wild Studies: Behavioral Plasticity and Social Complexity in Theropithecus gelada

Palagi

Bergman

2021

Animals

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Cognitive ethology explores the ability of animals to flexibly adapt their behavior to rapid physical and social environment fluctuations. Although there is a historical dichotomy between field and captive studies, recently, a growing interest in questions that sit at the intersection of cognitive and adaptive perspectives has helped bridge this divide. By focusing on Theropithecus gelada, we discuss the three main reasons why this hybrid approach is extremely successful. First, captive and wild studies provide data at different social, spatial, and temporal scales that can be synthesized to give a fuller picture of the behavior. Secondly, apparently conflicting results from captive and wild settings are powerful tools to explore behavioral flexibility and latent behavioral tendencies. Third, the different settings provide ways of validating and exploring behaviors that are noticed in the other setting. Although we were able to bring together our captive and wild research to demonstrate these ideas, we could have obtained a more integrated vision on the proximate and ultimate gelada behavioral and cognitive strategies if we had considered this hybrid approach from the beginning. We hope that this manuscript stimulates scholars in designing their studies by taking into account the incredible potential of a complementary captive-wild research approach.

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Manual preference, performance, and dexterity for bimanual grass‐feeding behavior in wild geladas (Theropithecus gelada)

Truppa,

Gamba,

Togliatto

et al. 2024

American J Primatol

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We assessed whether wild geladas, highly specialized terrestrial grass eaters, are lateralized for bimanual grass‐plucking behavior. According to the literature, we expected that complex motor movements in grass feeding would favor the emergence of a population‐level hand bias in these primates. In addition, we described geladas' manual behavior based on systematic observations of several individuals. Our study group included 28 individuals belonging to a population of free‐ranging geladas frequenting the Kundi plateau, Ethiopia. We filmed monkeys while feeding on grass, and hand preference and performance were coded. Geladas performed more plucking movements per second with their left hand (LH) compared to the right one and preferred their LH both to start and finish collection bouts. Also, the rhythmic movements of each hand had a significant tendency toward isochrony. Finally, geladas used forceful pad‐to‐pad precision grips, in‐hand movements, and compound grips to pluck and collect grass blades, considered the most advanced manual skills in primate species. The LH's leading role suggests an advantage of the right hemisphere in regulating geladas' bimanual grass‐feeding behavior. The tactile input from the hands and/or rhythmic hand movements might contribute to explaining this pattern of laterality. Our findings highlighted the importance of adopting multiple laterality measures to investigate manual laterality. Moreover, the need to speed up the execution time of manual foraging might be a further important factor in studying the evolution of manual laterality and dexterity in primates.

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Let’s unite in play! Play modality and group membership in wild geladas

Cited by 20 publications

References 89 publications

The face never lies: facial expressions and mimicry modulate playful interactions in wild geladas

The face never lies: facial expressions and mimicry modulate playful interactions in wild geladas

Bridging Captive and Wild Studies: Behavioral Plasticity and Social Complexity in Theropithecus gelada

Manual preference, performance, and dexterity for bimanual grass‐feeding behavior in wild geladas (Theropithecus gelada)

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