Object Manipulation and Tool Use in Nicobar Long-Tailed Macaques (Macaca fascicularis umbrosus)

Abstract

Object manipulation and tool use by non-human primates have received considerable attention from primatologists and anthropologists, because of their broad implications for understanding the evolution of tool use in humans. To date, however, most of the studies on this topic have focused on apes, given their close evolutionary relationship with humans. In contrast, fewer studies on tool use and object manipulation have been conducted on monkeys. Documenting and studying object manipulation and tool use in species that are more distantly related to humans can provide a broader perspective on the evolutionary origins of this behaviour. We present a detailed description of toolaided behaviours and object manipulation by Nicobar long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis umbrosus) living along the coastlines of Great Nicobar Island. We made observations from December 2018 to March 2019, using ad libitum and focal sampling methods. We observed behaviours related to object manipulation and tool use in six different behavioural contexts (foraging, hygiene, communication, play, selfdirected and self-hygiene behaviour) involving eight different types of objects, namely resonance rod, play object, rolling platform, scraping tool, dental groom, pounding substrate, leaves as grip pads and wipers, and stimulation tool. We observed that males were involved in tool use and object manipulation more frequently than females. Our results add to existing records of object manipulation, tool-use behaviour and tool variants displayed by non-human primates, showing that Nicobar macaques perform multiple and diverse tool-aided behaviours.

First report of food sharing among nicobar long-tailed macaques

“…Furthermore, we recorded the majority of food sharing events occurring between males. We have previously shown a strong male-bias in object manipulation and tool use among Nicobar long-tailed macaques (Mazumder and Kaburu, 2020) and we argued that, for at least some of these behaviours, such as coconut pounding, this male-bias might be explained by the extra strength required in manipulating coconuts. Given that male macaques are normally bigger than females, they can more easily lift and pound the coconuts compared to females.…”

“…6). In all cases of coconut pounding, the individual pounded the coconut and broke it into pieces of unequal size (Mazumder and Kaburu, 2020). In 87% of the cases of coconut pounding (13 out of 15), after the food was processed this way, we observed the food possessor keep the coconut unguarded without threatening anyone who tried to pick the food from the substrate, and had also given some part of the food to members sitting close.…”

“…. Not every member of the group was able to forage on coconuts or termite logs, and only a handful of group members could feed on them either by using a unique technique to extract food or by guarding the food against other members (Mazumder and Kaburu, 2020). The food owner shared their food (either actively or passively) with other members who sat close to them while they were foraging on the food.…”

“…Both chimpanzees and long-tailed macaques, for example, form strong social relationships in which individuals exchange several services such as grooming and agonistic support (Mitani, 2006;Kaburu and Newton-Fisher, 2015;Gumert and Ho, 2008;Mishra et al, 2020). Furthermore, both species use tools (Whiten et al, 1999;Malaivijitnond et al, 2007) and forage on food items that are difficult to acquire and/or extract such as meat in chimpanzees (Mitani and Watts, 2001) and coconut in macaques (Pal et al, 2017b;Mazumder and Kaburu, 2020). This creates the situation in which only a handful of individuals have access to specific resources, which might be one of the conditions that can favour the emergence of food sharing.…”

Human Evolution in the Center of the Old World: An Updated Review of the South Asian Paleolithic

“…In addition to the observations and brief summaries provided above, additional key paleoanthropological discoveries in recent years include the first-ever recovery of Sivapithecus fossils outside the Siwalik Hills [85], extraction of DNA from ostrich eggshells and protohistoric human bones [86,87] and the report of tool-use and object manipulation by the macaque populations of Andaman and Nicobar Islands [88,89]. The Sivapithecus find comes from the western region of Gujarat and clearly demonstrates how little we know about past faunal distributions at the pan-Indian level.…”