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Hanya G (2009) Effects of food type and number of feeding sites in a tree on aggression during feeding in wild Macaca fuscata. International Journal of Primatology 30:569-581.

Abstract
It is important to understand the effects of ecological factors on aggression during feeding in order to link habitat characteristics to competitive regime and social relationships. Multiple habitat characteristics are likely to affect aggression, but few studies have examined the effect of multiple factors on within-group competition simultaneously. I examined the effect of eight factors for an effect on aggression during feeding in wild Japanese macaques living in a coniferous forest in Yakushima: density of the tree species, feeding time, number of feeding sites within a feeding tree, number of co-feeding animals, within-tree macaque density, food type, rank and sex of the focal animal. When macaques co-fed with other individuals, food type, the number of feeding sites and their interactions significantly influenced aggression. Aggression increased when macaques ate fruits/seeds when compared to other foods and as the number of feeding sites decreased. Primate socioecological models highlight the importance of clumped distribution of food patches as a correlate of within-group contest. However, this study indicated that primatologists need to pay attention to the factors related to the current feeding tree (food type and feeding tree size with respect to monopolizability) in addition to the distribution of food in the entire home range.

Keywords: aggression; co-feeding; food distribution; monopolizability; Yakushima

<Written by: Goro Hanya (hanya.goro.5z<atmark>kyoto-u.ac.jp)>
<Contact: Goro Hanya (hanya.goro.5z<atmark>kyoto-u.ac.jp)>
<Last update: June 26, 2009>