Grooming and agonistic support are 2 common primate behaviors that have been hypothesized to constitute examples of … reciprocal altruism. In particular, because primates often direct their grooming up the dominance hierarchy, it has been … suggested that they may exchange grooming for agonistic support. Empirical tests of this hypothesis have resulted in highly …

Grooming among female Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) was studied to test some predictions derived from the … application of biological market theory. Contrary to expectations, Japanese macaques did not time match the duration of grooming … reciprocated and nonreciprocated grooming in different ways. However, they did reciprocate total amount of grooming received. These …

Ectoparasites such as ticks have a negative effect on host fitness, whereas parasite-defense grooming is effective in … removing ticks. The central control (programmed grooming) model proposes that animals engage in preventive tick …-defense grooming in response to an internal timing mechanism, even in the absence of peripheral stimulation from parasites. This model …