Social grooming relationships have been proven to provide direct fitness benefits to a variety of species. In particular, grooming in yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) has been studied extensively, with numerous studies showing an increase in fitness as a result of social bonds formed through social grooming behavior. One such study, which collected 16 years of behavioral data on wild baboons, highlights the effects that sociality has on infant survival. A positive relationship is established between infant survival to one year and a composite sociality index, a measure of sociality based on proximity and social grooming. Evidence has also been provided for the effect of sociality on adult survival in wild baboons. Direct correlations between measures of social connectedness (which focuses on social grooming) and median survival time for both female and male baboons were modeled.
