Primate Cooperation After Disaster

Rachel Nuwer, in the New York Times ("In a Surprise, Monkeys React To a Disaster By Being Nicer") reports on a  recently published study of primate behavioral change after a disaster.  The disaster was Hurricane Maria, a category 5 hurricane that devasted the northeastern Caribbean, including the small Puerto Rican island of Cayo Santiago.  The island is home to around 1,000 macaques, a monkey known for its aggressive and competitive behavior. After the hurricane stripped the island of the vegetation, researchers expected conflicts over access to shade to intensify.  Instead, they witnessed a different type of behavior:  the macaques started to cooperate to share shade.  The researchers found that this cooperative behavior had a survival advantage, with cooperative monkeys reducing their chance of mortality by 42 percent.