The Best Monkey Books of All Time

This book provides a comprehensive look at nonhuman primate social inequalities as models for health differences associated with socioeconomic status in humans. The benefit of the socially-housed monkey model is that it provides the complexity of hierarchical structure and rank affiliation, i.e. both negative and positive aspects of social status. At the same time, nonhuman primates are more amenable to controlled experiments and more invasive studies that can be used in human beings to examine the effects of low status on brain development, neuroendocrine function, immunity, and eating behavior.

Because all of these biological and behavioral substrates form the underpinnings of human illness, and are likely shared among primates, the nonhuman primate model can significantly advance our understanding of the best interventions in humans.

This volume presents a broad spectrum of research on the Cayo Santiago macaques, a unique free-ranging colony of rhesus macaques in Puerto Rico. It includes thirteen scientific studies on the behavior and biology of the Cayo Santiago macaques, as well as a detailed history of the colony and a complete bibliography of over 260 scientific publications based on work at Cayo Santiago from 1938 through 1984. The chapters represent examples of both short- and long-term research conducted on the island over the past several years.

Some are reviews, providing a synopsis of complex longitudinal studies of behavior, vocal communication, functional morphology, genetics, and population dynamics. Others document the results of opportunistic studies of behavior or biological surveys. The chapters cover a broad range of topics, but all share a common dependence on the detailed life history and genealogical data which make the Cayo Santiago macaque colony an important international research resource.

This will be the first time a volume will be compiled focusing on South American monkeys as models to address and test critical issues in the study of nonhuman primates. In addition, the volume will serve an important compliment to the book on Mesoamerican primates recently published in the series under the DIPR book series. The book will be of interest to a broad range of scientists in various disciplines, ranging from primatology, to animal behavior, animal ecology, conservation biology, veterinary science, animal husbandry, anthropology, and natural resource management.

Moreover, although the volume will highlight South American primates, chapters will not simply review particular taxa or topics. Rather the focus of each chapter is to examine the nature and range of primate responses to changes in their ecological and social environments, and to use data on South American monkeys to address critical theoretical questions in the study of primate behavior, ecology, and conservation. Thus, we anticipate that the volume will be widely read by a broad range of students and researchers interested in prosimians, New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, apes, humans, as well as animal behavior and tropical biology.