Some individual animals are prone to social
isolation, new research suggests.
The study of rhesus macaques showed
some of the monkeys remain socially isolated for much of their lives,
suggesting their isolation is
caused by a persistent trait or traits.
The researchers - from the universities of
Exeter, Puerto Rico and Pennsylvania - believe the cause is a mixture of their
genes and other factors such as age, sex and family size.
"Understanding social isolation is
really important, and studying macaques might give us clues about human behaviour," said
Dr Lauren Brent, from the University of Exeter.
"Isolation is the latest epidemic among
humans, and research has suggested it is as bad for us as smoking 15 cigarettes
a day.
"Given the benefits of social
integration, we need to understand why some individual animals tend to be socially
isolated."
The researchers measured integration by
observing how much time macaques spent grooming others and being groomed - a
key social behaviour for the species.
The factors that played a role in isolation
were age, sex, social status, group size and how long a macaque had belonged to
a social group.
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