MONKEYS and apes are rather nice to each other most of the time, and not just
to make up after a fight.
Ethologists assumed that primates evolved social graces to temper their
aggression and soften the damage caused by infighting. But the evidence does not
bear that out, says Paul Garber at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. Few of the researchers who claim that social behaviour
originated as a way to make up after a fight have actually examined how the
animals interact.
Garber and his colleagues looked at how much time group-living primates spend
being social, and how…
