ArticleScientific reports2015
Mutual medication in capuchin monkeys - Social anointing improves coverage of topically applied anti-parasite medicines.
Article in Scientific reports, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Contexts of Anointing Behavior in a Group of Blond Capuchin Monkeys (Sapajus flavius) Inhabiting an Atlantic Forest Fragment.American journal of primatology · 2026Article
- Animal medical systems from Apis to apes: history, recent advances and future perspectives.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- The evolution of the human healthcare system and implications for understanding our responses to COVID-19.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2022Review
- Fur rubbing inPrimate biology · 2022Article
- Oxytocin and social gaze during a dominance categorization task in tufted capuchin monkeys.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Wild Blonde Capuchins (Sapajus flavius) Perform Anointing Behaviour Using Toxic Secretions of a Millipede (Spirobolida: Rhinocricidae).Journal of chemical ecology · 2020Article
- Why Care: Complex Evolutionary History of Human Healthcare Networks.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Review
- Anointing with commercial insect repellent by free-ranging Cebus capucinus in Manuel Antonio National Park, Quepos, Costa Rica.Primates; journal of primatology · 2019Article
- Potential self-medication using millipede secretions in red-fronted lemurs: combining anointment and ingestion for a joint action against gastrointestinal parasites?Primates; journal of primatology · 2018Article
- Wound treatment and selective help in a termite-hunting ant.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Self-anointing behaviour in captive titi monkeys (Primate biology · 2018Article
- Fur-rubbing withPrimate biology · 2017Article
- Effects of parasite pressure on parasite mortality and reproductive output in a rodent-flea system: inferring host defense trade-offs.Parasitology research · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Wild and captive capuchin monkeys will anoint themselves with a range of strong smelling substances including millipedes, ants, limes and onions. Hypotheses for the function of the behaviour range from medicinal to social. However, capuchin monkeys may anoint in contact with other individuals, as well as individually. The function of social anointing has also been explained as either medicinal or to enhance social bonding. By manipulating the abundance of an anointing resource given to two groups of tufted capuchins, we tested predictions derived from the main hypotheses for the functions of anointing and in particular, social anointing. Monkeys engaged in individual and social anointing in similar proportions when resources were rare or common, and monkeys holding resources continued to join anointing groups, indicating that social anointing has functions beyond that of gaining access to resources. The distribution of individual and social anointing actions on the monkeys' bodies supports a medicinal function for both individual and social anointing, that requires no additional social bonding hypotheses. Individual anointing targets hard-to-see body parts that are harder to groom, whilst social anointing targets hard-to-reach body parts. Social anointing in capuchins is a form of mutual medication that improves coverage of topically applied anti-parasite medicines.
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