Masaki Tomonaga

Yasuhiro Go

Hiroo Imai

Michael A. Huffman

Naofumi Nakagawa

(tentative) What bring about biodiversity are not always genes. As is the case with humans, cultural diversity of non-human animals has also been found. Most of well-known examples of animal cultures are those of food acquisition behaviors, such as sweet-potato-washing by Japanese macaques and nut-cracking by chimpanzees. First author, Naofumi Nakagawa, introduces cultural diversity of social behaviors in wild Japanese macaques, such as the embracing behaviors between adult females in a wild group in each population of Yakushima, Kinkazan, and Shimokita. The subtle local difference in embracing can be identified as the first evidence for social customs in wild Japanese macaques. The next author, Michael A. Huffman, introduces the self-medicative behavior in non-human primates, which is a relatively new study in primatology. Parasites cause a variety of diseases that affect the behavior and reproductive fitness of an individual. He classifies health maintenance and self-medicative behaviors observed in non-human primates into four levels. Not only humans but also apes and monkeys are maintaining their health. The third authors, Hiroo Imai, Masaki Tomonaga, and Yasuhiro Go, are promoting comparative cognitive sciences of primates including human and chimpanzees. Recently, human personal genome projects progresses as related to the phenotypes including cognition, while there was no similar project for non-human primates. They started personal genome and transcriptome projects of chimpanzees in Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, years ago. They introduce recent progresses of the project and related results based on the primate genome sciences.

Primatology in Japan

Monkeys, Apes, and Humans

Masayuki Nakamichi

Hideki Sugiura

Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) have been studied by primatologists since 1948, and considerable knowledge of the primate has been accumulated to elucidate the adaptation of the species over time and to distinct environments in Japan. The Japanese macaque is especially suited to intragenera and interpopulation comparative studies of behavior, physiology, and morphology, and to socioecology studies in general. This book, the most comprehensive ever published in English on Japanese macaques, is replete with contributions by leading researchers in field primatology. Highlighted are topics of intraspecific variations in the ecology and behaviors of the macaque. Such variations provide evidence of the ecological determinants on this species’ mating and social behaviors, along with evidence of cultural behavior. The book also addresses morphology, population genetics, recent habitat change, and conflicts with humans, and attests to the plasticity and complex adaptive system of macaque societies. The valuable information in this volume is recommended reading for researchers in primatology, anthropology, zoology, animal behavior, and conservation biology.

The Japanese Macaques

Naofumi Nakagawa

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