Photo: By Timothy Gonsalves
Rather than competing, monkeys reach out to the friends of friends in order to enlarge their social circles and thus their access to food when times are hard, researchers say. They saw this "social buffering" at work after Hurricane Maria destroyed most of Cayo Santiago's vegetation in 2017. The rhesus macaques, which are more like humans than other monkeys, groomed themselves more and also groomed others more than before, regardless of their kinship or power. Introverts increased their social bonds more than extroverts.
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