title: Revisiting play elements and self-handicapping in play: a comparative ethogram of five Old World monkey species.
abstract: Play behavior has been viewed as a mixture of elements drawn from "serious" behavior, interspersed by ritualized play signals. Two other types of play behaviors have been overlooked: patterns that are dissimilar from any serious behavior and patterns with self-handicapping character, that is, those that put the animal into unnecessary disadvantageous positions or situations. Here the authors show that these 2 types of patterns can constitute a major part of play repertoire. From our own videorecordings and observations, we constructed play ethograms of 5 monkey species (Semnopithecus entellus, Erythrocebus patas, Chlorocebus pygerythrus, Cercopithecus neglectus, and Cercopithecus diana). The authors evaluated the self-handicapping character of each pattern and in Hanuman langurs also the (dis)similarity to serious behavior. Of the 74 patterns in the 5 species, 33 (45%) were judged to have a self-handicapping character. Of 48 patterns observed in langurs, 16 (33%) were totally dissimilar to any serious langur behavior known to us. The authors discuss the possibility that the different types of play elements may have different functions in play.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. milada.petru@seznam.cz
authors.forename: Milada
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Petrů
authors.forename: Marek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Spinka
authors.forename: Veronika
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Charvátová
authors.forename: Stanislav
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lhota
mesh_terms: D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D002520:Cercopithecidae / Q000523:psychology*; D002521:Cercopithecus; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops / Q000523:psychology; D004901:Erythrocebus patas / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009043:Motor Activity; D009048:Motor Skills; D010988:Play and Playthings; D011187:Posture; D012919:Social Behavior; D012930:Social Dominance; D012931:Social Environment; D013045:Species Specificity