Kinship and behavior in nonhuman primates

Nonhuman primates show significantly more social interaction with matrilineal kin than nonkin. There is little evidence for kin recognition per se, and long-term association, fostered by long periods of biological dependency, strong sociality, and impressive cognitive capacities, is sufficient to account for the correlation between kinship and sociality. Association, as a proximal mechanism, in no way detracts from the adaptive significance of sociality strongly biased toward kin.This work was supported by National Science Foundation Grant BNS 86 16691 and, in part, by NIH grant RR 00165 to the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center. The Yerkes Primate Center is fully accredited by the AALAC.