Consistency of limb preference across unimanual feeding, bipedal locomotion, and social grooming in golden snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana)

ABSTRACT

The golden snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana) is a typical arboreal group-living Old World primate. While limb preference has been extensively studied in this species, limb preference consistency has not yet been explored. Here, based on 26 R. roxellana adults, we investigated whether individuals exhibit consistent motor biases in manual- (e.g., unimanual feeding and social grooming) and foot-related (e.g., bipedal locomotion) tasks and whether limb preference consistency is influenced by increased social interactions during social grooming. Results showed no consistency in the direction or strength of limb preference among tasks, except for lateral strength in handedness for unimanual feeding and footedness in the initiation of locomotion. Population-level foot preference was only found among right-handers. Marked lateral bias was found in unimanual feeding, indicating that it may be a sensitive behavioural measure for assessing manual preference, especially for provisioned populations. This study not only improves our understanding of the relationship between hand and foot preference in R. roxellana but also reveals potential differential hemispheric regulation of limb preference and the influence of increased social interaction on handedness consistency.

KEYWORDS:

• Limb preference
• bipedal locomotion
• Rhinopithecus roxellana
• social interaction

Acknowledgments

We thank the director and staff of the Foping Tourism Administration for their permission to conduct this research. We also thank Xi Yang from Northwest University for providing pictures.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Study data are available from the first author or corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the following research grants: Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB31020302); Key Project of Nature Science Function of China (31730104); National Natural Science Foundation of China (31900338; 32070457; 32000317); Shaanxi Academy of Sciences (2021k-12; 2020k-1) and its one research for matching in 2020.