Behavioural and physiological aspects of stress and aggression in nonhuman primates

Abstract

There is considerable interest in the study of stress and aggression in primates as a model for their interpretation in humans. Despite methodological and interpretational problems associated with behavioural and physiological measurement and definition, a considerable body of literature exists on these phenomena in primates. In the course of reviewing this literature we examine examples of many of the sources of variation in stress and aggression, including species identity, sex, age, breeding and social status, individual temperament, background, learning and resource distribution. This is followed by an examination of the interaction between stress and aggression before reviewing the most important areas in which changes in both stress and aggression are measured. In particular we examine those studies covering social aspects of an animal's life, specifically relating to social isolation, crowding as well as group formation, composition and instability. This review reveals the complex and often contradictory nature of relationships, not just between an animal's physiology and its behaviour, but between its stress status and display or receipt of aggression.