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Young World
Scratch to score
Madhav Gadgil
A jolly young macaque called Red-face,
Groomed his friends with such grace;
That — though his foes fought tooth and nail
It was to no avail,
Redface's clique they couldn't displace!
Equally at home in forests and orchards, on farms and in villages, in towns and cities, the red-faced Bonnet Macaques are amongst the most successful of our mammals. In very many ways, they are unique. In most other monkey species, males necessarily leave the troupe of their birth on reaching adulthood. In Bonnets some males do, but others stay put. So, many adult males in a Bonnet troupe would have known each other right from their birth. They form cliques to help each other rise in social hierarchy. These cliques are notable for the high rates of grooming amongst the members. The females groom even more intensively; both sexes surpassing levels known from other species. Finally, Bonnets are unique in that occasionally a monkey higher in the social hierarchy will actually condescend to groom a lower status individual. It is quite possible that the success of this cheeky little monkey is largely due to the solidarity within the troupes that all this "You scratch my back and I will scratch yours" generates.
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