Grooming is a very common behavior of mammals, including African antelope. This project is an integrated field and experimental approach to understanding the interaction of utilitarian (tick removal) and social aspects of grooming of impala. Impala are ideal subjects for this type of project. The animals are common in eastern and southern Africa and can be watched for long periods of time to accumulate quantitative data. Impala are also ideal subjects because they display a type of highly reciprocal mutual grooming that is unique among antelope and possibly among all mammals. The field studies comprise behavioral observations, sampling of tick loads on the various age-sex groups of impala to correlate with grooming rates, and assessment of ticks in the environment to correlate with tick loads. Behavioral observations on mutual grooming will examine the social influences on the grooming system, which may be one of the few genuine animal examples of evolved cooperation. Systematic field studies are needed to fully explore this unusual behavior. The part of the project dealing with mutual grooming explores a complex system in an ungulate species where the formation of social bonds and alliances is much simpler than in primates. This multidisciplinary approach to understanding the role of self-grooming and mutual grooming in the control of ectoparasites is expected to contribute information critical to the management and conservation of wildlife in African environments where domestic livestock farming is encroaching upon the habitat of the wildlife.
