SOME SOCIAL ALTERATIONS IN THE EARLY PERIODS FOLLOWING THE COMMENCEMENT OF PROVISIONING IN JAPANESE MONKEYS : (MACACA FUSCATA)

Abstract

Field observations of free-ranging Japanese monkeys were made at a feeding ground for three years from the sixth month after the beginning of provisionment(June, 1972 to September, 1974). In a provisioned troop, several social alterations occurred as feeding continued : except for a leader male, adult males gradually began to avoid the feeding ground, the dominance order among adult females changed drastically and then stabilized progressively, and antagonisticinteractions between adult females after their individual childbirths increased in frequency. These effects, probably due to provisioning, indicate that the social organization of non-provisioned troops is not identical with that of provisioned ones, which are the ones described and analyzed by many authors.