群居动物都会面临个体间的矛盾冲突，进而导致群内成员间的激烈争斗，影响个体关系和社会组织的稳定，灵长类具有哪些缓解群内个体间矛盾和维护社会稳定的行为机制是我们关心的问题。在掌握了海南南湾野生猕猴的组成结构、种群动态及识别群内个体的基础上，我们利用焦点动物取样法、匹配控制记录法等国际上成熟的动物行为研究技术，量化群内攻击-屈服行为、冲突后行为和非攻击性社会行为的各项指标，引入对等级结构、社会容忍度、攻击强度等的评价模式，确定海南猕猴的社会关系网和行为特点，分析其缓解群内社会矛盾和修复冲突后社会关系的行为机制，回答关于海南猕猴是否具有专制型社会的基础科学问题，为国内野生灵长类研究提供行为生态学数据和科研思路，改善国际相关研究主要局限于对饲养种群观察的现状，开拓灵长类社会稳定机制研究的范围，揭示灵长类行为机制的进化背景和适应意义，促进灵长类社会多样性理论的完善，为社会稳定机制研究提供新的思考视角。

Knowledge of how animals manage their conflicts is critical for understanding the dynamics of social systems. In the past decade, studies on primate conflict management, especially in macaques, have provided a complementary perspective on primate social systems and proposed several hypothesis to explain the evolutionary backgrounds of primate social relationships. Previous studies, however, largely confined to observations of captive populations, and provide little understanding on wild populations. .Since 1982, we have conducted long-term studies on the rhesus macaques at Nanwan Nature Reserve (E110o, N18o23'), Hainan Island, which is the southernmost distribution of Chinese rhesus populations. The prolong observation provided basic information on population dynamics, reproduction rate, life tables, activity budget, habitat characteristics, spatial distribution of the rhesus populations. We have habituated four wild groups with individual identification for all adult members. Based on previous preparations, we plan to make a further approach on detailed behavioral studies of conflict management in Hainan rhesus macaques. .The first goal of this project is to understand behavior characteristics and dominance style of Hainan rhesus populations. More specifically, we will use all-occurrence sampling, focal-animal sampling and matched-control sampling methods to collect behavioral data based on individual identification of rhesus macaque population at Nanwan Reserve, and will establish a comparative framework for evaluation of dominance style in macaques. The framework includes directional inconsistency index; grooming duration, conciliatory tendency, approach frequency, negative approach result, up/down index, aggression intensity, counter-aggression index. These behavioral measures are also useful for future comparative analysis for intra/inter species variations of social relationships. The second goal of the proposed project is to extend studies of macaque conflict management from captive populations to wild populations. We will collect ecological data, e.g. food distribution, habitat environment, to discuss behavioral adaptation and plasticity in primates.. This proposed project will be the first approach on dominance style of Chinese rhesus macaques in wild environments. The results will help test the social-ecology hypothesis, covariation hypothesis and reveal evolutionary mechanism of dominance style in rhesus macaques. It is hoped that in the future, other researchers will help the volume of comparative data in various habitats to grow, and that this type of research contributes to an overall picture of social system in macaques. Finally, the resulting database from the research proposed here should also contribute to our understanding of diversity and plasticity in primate social organization.