Why is it necessary to be able to identify indevidual primates when studing a troop?

Question

Why is it necessary to be able to identify indevidual primates when studing a troop?

Answer 1

Hoo Hoo HAR HAR HAR HAR Hoo Hoo hee hee hee hee Hoo Hoo Har Har Har!

Now imagine you are studying a troop. You note that one individual goes Hoo Hoo and one goes Har Har and one goes Hee Hee Hee. You record the sound. If you hadn;t identified that three different individuals make these sounds the above recording is meaningless. mHowever now you can begin to make sense of the troop's signalling language. They are individuals like humans, without ID'ing them how can you understand traits and behaviours and predict the next move? Hoo Hoo Har Har Har Hee Hee ?

Answer 2

That is not necessarily true.  If you are doing behavioural observations then it is imperative because you have to be able to record who is doing what to whom.  If you are just doing a census or a parasite study then all you need to do is pick up fecal samples or else count the individuals.  I know this because I have participated in all of these types of studies and more...  Another study we did was the territorial size for a troop of Sykes, this involved radio-collars on some individuals and again it was not important to know the individual animals.  Like I said at the beginning, unless you are studying behaviour individual identification is usually not necessary.  It can also be neccesary to identify individuals if you are doing DNA/hereditary studies.  Technically a DNA/hereditary based study can be done without behavioural observations and in a lot of these types of studies you'll see the primates given a number identification system rather then a name based system which is typical in behavioural studies.  Typically when names are used for behavioural studies they will be given such that they identify either a morphological or personality characteristic of that individual and becomes useful in long term studies as it is easier for students or assistants who may only be helping transitionally to quickly become comfortable/knowledgable of the troop, although in some cases the principal investigator might feel that names may taint the way they observe the troop and might use a number system instead.