Measuring behavioral coping style and stress reactivity experimentally in wild olive baboons

• Published in: Behavioural processes 2022-02, Vol.195, p.104564-104564, Article 104564
• Main Authors: Pritchard, Alexander J., Palombit, Ryne A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Animals; Anxiety; Biological Evolution; Decision making; Fear; Individual differences; Motivation; Papio anubis; Personality; Primates; Temperament
• ISSN: 0376-6357; 1872-8308
• DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2021.104564

Many nonhuman animals have been used as subjects to elucidate intra-individual variation in the stress response – understood via coping styles and stress reactivity. Given the evidence and theory supporting evolutionary trade-offs associated with such differences, it is surprising, then, how few studies have used wild nonhuman primates to develop this theoretical framework. In the current study, we evaluated this framework using a combination of behaviours from focal follows and an experimental method, novel to the field – collected during a 17 month project on olive baboons (Papio anubis) in Laikipia, Kenya. Our experimental design simultaneously introduces a risk with an incentive: a model snake with a real chicken egg, respectively. Such an approach facilitates multiple solutions to a stressor, a key element of coping style theory. General behavioral tendencies did not associate with the experimental measures of coping style and stress reactivity. These results, however, demonstrated the utility and validity of this experimental approach for measuring coping style and stress reactivity in wild nonhumans. Fear grimaces represented stress reactivity. A factor solution represented coping style – summarizing decision making under stress. The treatment experiment, with a snake and egg, elicited a behavioral stress response, relative to control trials with just an egg. •Coping style framework characterizes individual differences in the stress response.•Validation of the coping style framework has not yet been done for wild primates.•Concurrent presentation of an incentive with a threat facilitates coping variation.•Behavioral data from focal follows fit poorly with experimental data.•Self-directed behaviors and restlessness, however, warrant future examination.