Primate Behavior: Field Studies of Monkeys and Apes.

Abstract

While there has always been some scientific interest in nonhuman primate behavior as it occurs under natural conditions, the recent proliferation of research in this area certainly is remarkable. Without doubt, one salient factor which has initiated this trend has been the work of the European ethologists. Ethologists have stressed the importance of field as compared to laboratory studies of animal behavior, since they feel that only the former approach can illuminate the adaptive significance of diverse behaviors. It is this interest in adaptation, and concern with the role of evolution in the behavior of organisms which appears to be the core around which much of the current research is organized. Interest in the evolution of behavior leads one naturally to the study of nonhuman primates, and surprisingly, little systematic information had been gathered with regard to man's close phylogenetic neighbors. Within the