Date of Award

Fall 12-2010

Degree Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Sheree Watson

Committee Chair Department

Psychology

Committee Member 2

Tammy Greer

Committee Member 2 Department

Psychology

Committee Member 3

Andrea Wesley

Committee Member 3 Department

Psychology

Abstract

The current study examined dominance behaviors in bushbabies and examined whether feeding priority (i.e., first access to a food source) is a viable measure of dominance. Several measures of dominance were employed. Among the measures of dominance investigated were agonistic interactions, grooming, displacement, and deference of space. The results indicated that females initiated more agonistic interactions than males, but the other measures of dominance did not support the hypothesis that females were the dominant sex. The results were partially consistent with the hypothesis that feeding priority is a viable measure of dominance in that females obtained feeding priority in the small and medium patch conditions.

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