Local and global information in a dynamic model of male howler monkey
interactions
G.A. Lopardo1 and J. Veà Baró2
1Agents Research lab, University
of Girona, Girona, Spain
2Primate Research Center and Department of Psychiatry and Clinic Psicobiology,
University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
This paper describes a dynamic model of male-male interactions in howler
monkeys (Alouatta palliata, Primates) inhabiting a patchy environment.
Howler monkeys are folivorous primates living in groups with low aggresive
behavior. Solitary males approach resident males to attempt a take-over.
The male–male interactions are described and analyzed.
The model can be run on laptop or desktop computers. At the heart of
the model is a Stella II system that includes an easily model scenario
for analysis of movements and providing its measurement.
The entropy of the interactions was measured with two indices, the index
of Shannon´s entropy and the Fisher´s information. Both measures
of entropy are compared to each other and to a theoretical model. The
theoretical model is constructed on the basis of the Zipf Mandelbrot model.
The behavior of the interactions is studied analyzing the local and global
components of the information. From this analysis the most suitable use
for each type of the different types (local and global) of information
is presented. In addition a possible predictive scenario for the analysis
of the interactions between males is proposed.
Paper presented
at Measuring Behavior 2005
, 5th International Conference on Methods and Techniques
in Behavioral Research, 30 August - 2 September 2005, Wageningen, The
Netherlands.
© 2005 Noldus
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