Ontogeny of locomotion in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta): II. Postural and locomotor behavior and habitat use in a free‐ranging colony

Abstract

This study quantifies changes in postural and locomotor behavior as well as habitat use across the life span of free-ranging rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) in the Cayo Santiago colony in Puerto Rico. It focuses on developmentally related changes from birth to adulthood, and complements an earlier study by Turnquist and Wells ([1994] J Hum Evol 26:487-499) on the early postnatal ontogeny of the musculoskeletal system of the same colony. A total of 6,551 locomotor and postural events was analyzed. Selection and use of substrate correlated well with age. The more sedentary adult and dependent infant select safe, wide, horizontal arboreal settings in contrast to the older Infant IIs and Juveniles, who are learning locomotor and postural skills through independent chase and play. Infant macaques, when independent, often employ a low center of gravity and widely abducted limbs in order to broaden their contact with the base of support. This study shows that the previously reported ontogenetic changes in morphology are closely paralleled by changes in postural and locomotor behavior, and these in turn are correlated to changes in habitat use, particularly during the formative years.

Locomotion and postural behaviour

“…References and further readings: Dunbar (1989), Nowak (1999), Rowe (1996), Vilensky (1983), Wells and Turnquist (2001) be overweight with its inherent risk for diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, muscle atrophy, and destructive joint diseases. Caused by a low amount of physical activities and a high amount of sedentary activities, primates in captivity often suffer from the same diseases of affluence than many humans do today.…”

Bipedal Behaviour in Olive Baboons: Infants versus Adults in a Captive Environment

“…In infants, bipedalism accounts for about 15% of locomotion in P. troglodytes [Doran, 1992] and about 20% in G. gorilla beringei [Doran, 1997]. In infant macaques, bipedal walking accounts for 1% of the locomotor repertoire (as in adults), while bipedal standing accounts for 5% of the postural repertoire [Wells and Turnquist, 2001]; no mention is made of the type of bipedalism performed by infants. In hominoids (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas), adults appear to use bipedalism less often than immature animals [Doran, 1992[Doran, , 1997.…”

“…With regard to the evolutionary transition to the permanent extended bipedal posture and locomotion, attention has been given to the postural and locomotor rep-ertoire in primates that are most closely related to humans, such as chimpanzees [Hunt, 1991;Doran, 1992Doran, , 1993aDoran, , b, 1997, bonobos [Doran, 1992[Doran, , 1993a, orang-utans [Sugardjito and van Hooff, 1986;Thorpe and Crompton, 2006;Myatt and Thorpe, 2011] and gorillas [Doran, 1997;LaRocque, 2008], as well as in cercopithecoids such as macaques [Dunbar and Badam, 1998;Wells and Turnquist, 2001] and baboons [Nagel, 1973;Rose, 1977;Hunt, 1991Hunt, , 1992. In adult Pongo abelli , the locomotor repertoire accounts for 7.3% of bipedal locomotion [Thorpe and Crompton, 2006] and for around 1.5% in Gorilla gorilla beringei [Doran, 1997]; the locomotor and postural repertoire accounts for about 1-2% of bipedalism in Pan paniscus [Doran, 1993a], 1.2% in Pan troglodytes [Doran, 1993b], around 1% in Macaca mulatta [Wells and Turnquist, 2001], 0.8% in Papio anubis [Rose, 1976] and 0.4% in Papio hamadryas [Nagel, 1973]. Extended ('human-like') bipedalism is not common in non-human primates; a few occurrences have been observed in chimpanzees [Hunt et al, 1996] and orang-utans [Thorpe et al, 2007], although bipedalism in these species usually involves a flexed posture.…”

Kinematics of quadrupedal locomotion in sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps): effects of age and substrate size

“…In contrast, naturalistic studies of locomotor ontogeny in arboreal taxa (mainly primates) have mostly focused on ontogenetic shifts in locomotor and substrate preferences (e.g. Doran, 1992;Wells and Turnquist, 2001;Workman and Covert, 2005;Bezanson, 2009), but have provided fewer data on the specific biomechanical means by which juveniles compensate for their anatomical limitations on any particular substrate.…”