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Role of immigrant males and muzzle contacts in the uptake of a novel food by wild vervet monkeys

The entry into and uptake of information in social groups is critical for behavioural adaptation by long-lived species in rapidly changing environments. We exposed five groups of wild vervet monkeys to a novel food to investigate innovation of processing and consuming it. We report that immigrant males innovated in two groups, and an infant innovated in one group. In two other groups, immigrant males imported the innovation from their previous groups. We compared uptake between groups according to the innovator to examine the extent to which dispersing males could introduce an innovation into groups. Uptake of the novel food was faster in groups where immigrant males ate first rather than the infant. Younger individuals were more likely overall, and faster, to subsequently acquire the novel food. We also investigated the role of muzzle contact behaviour in information seeking around the novel food. Muzzle contacts decreased in frequency over repeated exposures to the novel food when many individuals were eating. Muzzle contacts were initiated the most by naïve individuals, high rankers and juveniles; and were targeted most towards knowledgeable individuals and high rankers, and the least towards infants. Finally, knowledge influenced females and juveniles less than males and adults in becoming more likely targets than initiators. We highlight the potential importance of dispersers in rapidly exploiting novel resources among populations.