White Faced Monkeys (Part 2): Social Grooming

All animals regularly clean themselves to keep their fur, feathers, scales, or other skin coverings in good condition. This activity is known as personal grooming, preening, or auto-grooming and serves as a form of hygiene. Many social animals groom each other, an activity known as social grooming or mutual grooming. Social grooming also takes the form of stroking, scratching, and massaging. Primates provide perhaps the best example of this activity. Primatologists have called grooming the "social cement" of the primate world. The trust and bonding it builds is critical to group cooperation. Among primates, social grooming pays an important role in establishing and maintaining alliances and dominance hierarchies for building coalitions, for reconciliation after conflicts, and is a resource that is exchanged for other resources like food and sex.