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Species: Celebes Monkey (Macaca nigra)
Use: General Activity
Authors: Sally A. Nickelson and Joan S.Lockard, University of Washington
Methods: Focal Sampling
Publications/Presentations: S.A. Nickelson and J.S. Lockard (1978). Ethogram of Celebes Monkeys (Macaca nigra) in Two Captive Habitats. Primates, 19(3): 437-447.
Rest: The monkeys exhibited a variety of sitting and lying postures while they were resting. The most consistent posture was that demonstrated by the dominant male. It would sit back straight and arms resting on its knees, continually scanning the landscape and the rest of its troop.
Locomotion: Any movement involving the entire body.
Walking: Always seen to be quadrupedal and varied from a slow saunter to a brisk stride.
Running
Jumping
Climbing: Movements involved when ascending a very steep surface such as a wall or a tree. Mainly hand-over-hand assisted by the hindlimbs.
Clinging: Seen when a monkey (usually the smaller ones) would grasp with all four limbs onto a vertical surface, i.e., wire mesh, and remain stationary for three or more seconds.
Hanging: Involved the suspension of the monkey by any combination of its hands and/or feet.
Standing quadrupedally: Recorded when the monkey remained stationary on all fours for three or more seconds.
Standing bipedally: Seen only occasionally.
Ingestion
Searching for food: Consisted of brushing aside hay or any particles lying on the ground, picking through the dirt for tiny bits of food, or picking up and discarding items of food until one was eaten.
Regurgitation
Eating
Drinking
Food cleaning: Seen in three forms: first, a monkey would rub a food item along a flat surface; second, a food item was rubbed between a monkeyÕs two hands; and third (observed infrequently), a monkey would hold a food pellet under the drinking faucet.
Threat-submission
Staring with open mouth threat: This consisted of the mouth formed in an ÒOÓ, the teeth completely covered by the lips, the upper head skin retracted, emphasized by the crest present in M.nigra, and the eyes in a directed stare.
High grin: This consisted of retraction of the upper lip only while the mouth remained closed, and was usually given by the dominant male in a threatening context.Threat lunge: Seen only during aggressive interactions between two animals of approximately the same dominance ranking. They would trade open mouth threats after which one, then the other would lunge towards the opponent, reaching out with the hand but never quite touching. When one monkey lunged, the other would jump back a corresponding distance, keeping the distance between the two approximately equal.
Threat chase: This occurred as a dominant animal first threatened with an open mouth threat, then chases at a fast run a more submissive monkey. The submissive monkey gave a high intensity submissive grimace accompanied by screaming vocalization. The chase usually ended with no contact.
Display, environmental shaking: Generally performed as a bouncing off of a wall in the indoor cage, and as actual shaking of branches on the island.
Threat yawn: Almost always seen in conjunction with environmental shaking, the two functioning as a combined dominance display, began with the monkey forming its lips in an ÒOÓ. It would then throw its head back, close its eyes and fully expose its canines. Subsequently, the head and mouth would return to a normal position.
Supplanting: Occurred when an animal entered an area and another would leave. This could involve the actual taking the place of the vacated animal and sitting in the same spot, or just causing the other to leave merely by the entering animalÕs presence. It was invariably the more dominant animal that would supplant the more submissive.
Eye-aversion: Occurred only when accompanied by head movement in order to assure data reliability
Submissive grimace, low intensity: (described by Van Hooff (1967) as the Silent Bared Teeth Face) the animalÕs mouth was closed, lips fully retracted exposing both upper and lower teeth, and the skin of the scalp was retracted. It was often accompanied by a rapid glancing to and from the object of the grimace, in possibly a ritualized accentuation of the display. It occurred primarily as a response to aggression, but was also seen given occasionally by the dominant male during copulation.Submissive grimace, high intensity with vocalization: This was always accompanied by a screaming vocalization and was only seen to occur when an animal was being chased. In this case, the mouth was completely open and the lips retracted exposing all the teeth.
Lip smacking: The tongue usually protruded and, often in reassuring situations, the head was tilted upward and the performer peered over its nose at its partner (Van Hooff, 1967). It occurred in a variety of situations: functionally (during grooming), as a reassuring gesture by a dominant to a submissive, and as an appeasement gesture by a submissive to a dominant. Often after a tense situation, both animals would lip smack simultaneously- one serving a reassuring and the other an appeasement function.
Grooming
Scratching: A repeated rubbing of an area with a hand or foot
Self groom: A manipulative searching through the hair with the fingers
Groom another animal
Mutual groom
Shake: The entire body was moved quickly in a back and forth motion, seen when the animals were ridding their fur of water or dust
Sexual
Presenting: Usually done with the female standing normally on all fours with its swollen genital area oriented towards the male and slightly raised
Mounting: Observed to be the typical macaque type, the male gripping the legs of the female with its hind legs, and grasping the femaleÕs waist with its hands. The female would look back, lip smack, grimace, and/or vocalize on occasion, but in no consistent pattern. It is impossible to say whether ejaculation occurred at each mount or only after a succession of mounts, since no ejaculate was ever seen.
After and uninterrupted mount the female would start to groom the male immediately after it dismounted. This would often lead to a reciprocal grooming bout.
Thrust
Ejaculation
Sniffing: This was a procedure that seemed to be a maleÕs evaluating the femaleÕs receptivity. The male would follow until it was caught (actually physically grabbed around the waist with the hands) and then sniff its genitalia. This behavior rarely culminated in a mount, and when it did it was more of a feign than an actual mount. A sexual present was never exhibited by the female prior to this behavior.
Contact with the hands: Often a touch of reassurance or a preliminary to grooming
Contact with the face: Often includes sniffing of one monkeyÕs face by another
Huddle: The monkeys were observed to huddle in groups ranging from two to the entire troop of ten. The huddle consisted of extensive touching of the body trunk with arms wrapped around each other. It occurred most often when the animals were in a sitting position, and, more rarely, when lying.
Huddle with eye closure
Mutual embrace: Seen between two dominant females. They stood facing in opposite directions and each clasped one arm over the waist of the other.
Play face: The play face exhibited by M.nigra is similar to that generally described for other macaques (Van Hooff, 1976), except that the lips are retracted and the teeth exposed.
Play bite: This was a gentle gnawing of another animal, often when the two were tumbling about and wrestling- each trying to grab and bite the other.
Play chase: Often occurred between the younger animals with one chasing the other at full run. These chases would at times result in a reciprocal chase but more often would result in wrestling, biting or pulling, or in the chaser abruptly breaking off the chase and beginning a totally unrelated activity.
Play pull: Often seen when an animal was attempting to initiate play. It would, for example, give a play face and reach out and pull another animalÕs extremity toward it.
Wrestling: Play pull would often result in wrestling, which was the most frequent form of play.
Swinging: Only seen in the indoor cage where a large rope hanging from the ceiling was used to swing back and forth.
Environmental play: Done by a solitary animal with an object in its environment, e.g., sticks, rocks, straw. It would assume a rollicking, bouncy manner and perform such acts as throwing the object or, if stationary, bounce on it or pull it and watch the rebound.
Self play: Similar to environmental play, but no objects were used. The animal would walk with a bouncy gait, and perhaps jump and roll about.
Environmental manipulation: This was different in that the monkey seemed intent upon completing a task, e.g., peeling paint off a wall or attempting to manipulate a wire outside the cage and barely within reach. This was usually a solitary activity and the animal had no playful manner about it. There was no rollicking or bouncy gait or aimless tossing of objects. Rather it seemed intent on completing the activity and would often pursue it at length.