De Filippis Bianca, Chiarotti Flavia, Vitale Augusto
Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Rome, Italy.
J Appl Anim Welf Sci. 2009;12(3):214-22. doi: 10.1080/10888700902955963.
Members of captive colonies of common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus), a small New World primate, can occasionally be victims of repeated, and potentially fatal, attacks by a family-mate. This study examined the records of a colony, looking for past instances of such aggressions. The aim was to better understand the possible causes underlying this phenomenon and to identify variables that could minimize their occurrence. The results showed that both males and females behaved as aggressors at the same rate, but females attacked just females, whereas males attacked both males and females. Most aggressions involved siblings and occurred at a higher rate when the cages were occupied by more than 5 nonhuman animals. The influence of group size was significant only when females behaved as aggressors. This study suggests that several factors can determine the occurrence of these aggressions and that their relative importance depends on the sex of the aggressor. The results of this study highlight the importance of collecting further data to verify whether crowding in a confined space, rather than group size per se, affects the incidence of these aggressions.
普通狨猴（Callithrix jacchus）是一种小型新大陆灵长类动物，圈养群体中的成员偶尔会成为被同家族成员反复攻击的受害者，这些攻击甚至可能是致命的。本研究查阅了一个群体的记录，以寻找此类攻击行为的过往实例。目的是更好地理解这一现象背后的可能原因，并确定能够将其发生频率降至最低的变量。结果显示，雄性和雌性作为攻击者的行为发生率相同，但雌性只攻击雌性，而雄性则攻击雄性和雌性。大多数攻击行为涉及兄弟姐妹，并且当笼子里饲养的非人类动物超过5只时，攻击发生率更高。群体规模的影响仅在雌性作为攻击者时显著。本研究表明，有几个因素可以决定这些攻击行为的发生，而且它们的相对重要性取决于攻击者的性别。这项研究的结果凸显了收集更多数据以验证在有限空间内的拥挤状况而非群体规模本身是否会影响这些攻击行为发生率的重要性。
