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Tapanes E, Kamilar JM, Nukala MA, Irwin MT, Bradley BJ. Melanism in a Wild Sifaka Population: Darker Where Cold and Fragmented. INT J PRIMATOL 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s10764-022-00323-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/15/2022]
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Sex differences in audience effects on anogenital scent marking in the red-fronted lemur. Sci Rep 2022; 12:5266. [PMID: 35347156 PMCID: PMC8960772 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-08861-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2021] [Accepted: 03/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
How the presence of conspecifics affects scent mark deposition remains an understudied aspect of olfactory communication, even though scent marking occurs in different social contexts. Sex differences in scent-marking behaviour are common, and sex-specific effects of the audience could therefore be expected. We investigated sex differences in intra-group audience effects on anogenital scent marking in four groups of wild red-fronted lemurs (Eulemur rufifrons) by performing focal scent-marking observations. We observed a total of 327 events divided into 223 anogenital scent-marking events and 104 pass-by events (i.e. passage without scent marking). Using a combination of generalised linear mixed models and exponential random graph models, we found that scent marking in red-fronted lemurs is associated with some behavioural flexibility linked to the composition of the audience at the time of scent deposition. In particular, our study revealed sex differences in the audience effects, with males being overall more sensitive to their audience than females. Moreover, we show that these audience effects were dependent on the relative degree of social integration of the focal individual compared to that of individuals in the audience (difference in Composite Sociality Index) as well as the strength of the dyadic affiliative relationship (rank of Dyadic Composite Sociality Index within the group). The audience effects also varied as a function of the audience radius considered. Hence, we showed that scent marking in red-fronted lemurs is associated with some behavioural flexibility linked to the composition of the audience, ascribing red-fronted lemurs’ social competence in this context.
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Malalaharivony HS, Kappeler PM, Fichtel C. Infant Development and Maternal Care in Wild Verreaux’s Sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi). INT J PRIMATOL 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s10764-021-00255-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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Dezeure J, Dagorrette J, Baniel A, Carter AJ, Cowlishaw G, Marshall HH, Martina C, Raby CL, Huchard E. Developmental transitions in body color in chacma baboon infants: Implications to estimate age and developmental pace. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2020; 174:89-102. [PMID: 32845027 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2020] [Revised: 07/03/2020] [Accepted: 07/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES In many primates, one of the most noticeable morphological developmental traits is the transition from natal fur and skin color to adult coloration. Studying the chronology and average age at such color transitions can be an easy and noninvasive method to (a) estimate the age of infants whose dates of birth were not observed, and (b) detect interindividual differences in the pace of development for infants with known birth dates. MATERIALS AND METHODS Using a combination of photographs and field observations from 73 infant chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) of known ages, we (a) scored the skin color of six different body parts from pink to gray, as well as the color of the fur from black to gray; (b) validated our method of age estimation using photographic and field observations on an independent subset of 22 infants with known date of birth; and (c) investigated ecological, social, and individual determinants of age-related variation in skin and fur color. RESULTS Our results show that transitions in skin color can be used to age infant chacma baboons less than 7 months old with accuracy (median number of days between actual and estimated age = 10, range = 0-86). We also reveal that food availability during the mother's pregnancy, but not during lactation, affects infant color-for-age and therefore acts as a predictor of developmental pace. DISCUSSION This study highlights the potential of monitoring within- and between-infant variation in color to estimate age when age is unknown, and developmental pace when age is known.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jules Dezeure
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology of Montpellier (ISEM), Université de Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, EPHE, Montpellier, France
| | - Julie Dagorrette
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology of Montpellier (ISEM), Université de Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, EPHE, Montpellier, France
| | - Alice Baniel
- Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA
| | - Alecia J Carter
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Guy Cowlishaw
- Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, London, UK
| | - Harry H Marshall
- Centre for Research in Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour, Department of Life Sciences, University of Roehampton, London, UK
| | - Claudia Martina
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, UK
- Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, London, UK
- Department of Behavioural Biology, University of Vienna, Austria
| | - Cassandra L Raby
- Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, London, UK
- Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Biosciences Building, Liverpool, UK
| | - Elise Huchard
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology of Montpellier (ISEM), Université de Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, EPHE, Montpellier, France
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Meredith S. Sex-Typed Social Development in Lemur catta. Folia Primatol (Basel) 2018; 89:224-239. [DOI: 10.1159/000487433] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2017] [Accepted: 02/03/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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Rakotonirina H, Kappeler PM, Fichtel C. Evolution of facial color pattern complexity in lemurs. Sci Rep 2017; 7:15181. [PMID: 29123214 PMCID: PMC5680244 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-15393-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2017] [Accepted: 10/24/2017] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Interspecific variation in facial color patterns across New and Old World primates has been linked to species recognition and group size. Because group size has opposite effects on interspecific variation in facial color patterns in these two radiations, a study of the third large primate radiation may shed light on convergences and divergences in this context. We therefore compiled published social and ecological data and analyzed facial photographs of 65 lemur species to categorize variation in hair length, hair and skin coloration as well as color brightness. Phylogenetically controlled analyses revealed that group size and the number of sympatric species did not influence the evolution of facial color complexity in lemurs. Climatic factors, however, influenced facial color complexity, pigmentation and hair length in a few facial regions. Hair length in two facial regions was also correlated with group size and may facilitate individual recognition. Since phylogenetic signals were moderate to high for most models, genetic drift may have also played a role in the evolution of facial color patterns of lemurs. In conclusion, social factors seem to have played only a subordinate role in the evolution of facial color complexity in lemurs, and, more generally, group size appears to have no systematic functional effect on facial color complexity across all primates.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Peter M Kappeler
- Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology Unit, German Primate Center, Göttingen, Germany.,Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Wallotstr. 19, 14193, Berlin, Germany
| | - Claudia Fichtel
- Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology Unit, German Primate Center, Göttingen, Germany
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Meredith SL. Comparative perspectives on human gender development and evolution. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2014; 156 Suppl 59:72-97. [DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22660] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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Abstract
During the latter half of the last century, evidence of reproductive competition between males and male selection by females led to the development of a stereotypical view of sex differences that characterized males as competitive and aggressive, and females as passive and choosy, which is currently being revised. Here, we compare social competition and its consequences for selection in males and females and argue that similar selection processes operate in both sexes and that contrasts between the sexes are quantitative rather than qualitative. We suggest that classifications of selection based on distinction between the form of competition or the components of fitness that are involved introduce unnecessary complexities and that the most useful approach in understanding the evolution and distribution of differences and similarities between the sexes is to compare the operation of selection in males and females in different reproductive systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- T. H. Clutton-Brock
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
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Abstract
In this review I survey pelage and skin colouration patterns of the 29 orders of extant mammals and assess their functional significance. The vast majority of mammals are shades of grey or brown. Concealment is probably the principal evolutionary driver of pelage colouration in this Class likely through background matching and self-shadow concealment. A small minority of species are aposematic while many others have distinctive markings used in intraspecific and interspecific communication although the meaning of these markings is unclear. Colouration in mammals also has physiological consequences but these are barely understood as yet.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tim Caro
- Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, and Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
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Clutton-Brock T, Huchard E. Social competition and its consequences in female mammals. J Zool (1987) 2013. [DOI: 10.1111/jzo.12023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 117] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - E. Huchard
- Department of Zoology; University of Cambridge; Cambridge UK
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Pyritz LW, Fichtel C, Huchard E, Kappeler PM. Determinants and outcomes of decision-making, group coordination and social interactions during a foraging experiment in a wild primate. PLoS One 2013; 8:e53144. [PMID: 23326392 PMCID: PMC3542333 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0053144] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2012] [Accepted: 11/26/2012] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Social animals have to coordinate joint movements to maintain group cohesion, but the latter is often compromised by diverging individual interests. A widespread behavioral mechanism to achieve coordination relies on shared or unshared consensus decision-making. If consensus costs are high, group fission represents an alternative tactic. Exploring determinants and outcomes of spontaneous group decisions and coordination of free-ranging animals is methodologically challenging. We therefore conducted a foraging experiment with a group of wild redfronted lemurs (Eulemur rufifrons) to study decision outcomes, coordination of movements, individual foraging benefits and social interactions in response to the presentation of drinking platforms with varying baiting patterns. Behavioral observations were complemented with data from recordings of motion detector cameras installed at the platforms. The animal's behavior in the experimental conditions was compared to natural group movements. We could not determine the type of consensus decision-making because the group visited platforms randomly. The group fissioned during 23.3% of platform visits, and fissioning resulted in more individuals drinking simultaneously. As under natural conditions, adult females initiated most group movements, but overtaking by individuals of different age and sex classes occurred in 67% of movements to platforms, compared to only 18% during other movements. As a result, individual resource intake at the platforms did not depend on departure position, age or sex, but on arrival order. Aggression at the platforms did not affect resource intake, presumably due to low supplanting rates. Our findings highlight the diversity of coordination processes and related consequences for individual foraging benefits in a primate group living under natural conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lennart W Pyritz
- Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Unit, German Primate Center, Göttingen, Germany.
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Coordination of Group Movements in Wild Red-fronted Lemurs (Eulemur rufifrons): Processes and Influence of Ecological and Reproductive Seasonality. INT J PRIMATOL 2011; 32:1325-1347. [PMID: 22207771 PMCID: PMC3228953 DOI: 10.1007/s10764-011-9549-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2011] [Accepted: 08/02/2011] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Group-living species have to coordinate collective actions to maintain cohesion. In primates, spatial movements represent a meaningful model to study group coordination processes across different socio-ecological contexts. We studied 4 groups of red-fronted lemurs (Eulemur rufifrons) in Kirindy Forest, Madagascar, between 2008 and 2010 across different ecological and reproductive seasons. We collected data on ranging patterns using GPS collars and observational data on different predefined parameters of group movements, including initiation, leadership, followership, overtaking events, termination, and travel distances. Cohesion of these relatively small, egalitarian lemur groups was high year-round, but daily path length and home range size varied considerably between ecological seasons, presumably due to long-distance migrations of some groups at the beginning of the rainy season. Individuals of different age and sex classes successfully initiated group movements. However, stable female leadership prevailed year-round, irrespective of ecological and reproductive season, which might be due to higher or more specific energetic requirements of reproduction. In contrast to lemur species with a more despotic social structure, female red-fronted lemurs did not recruit more followers than males. Adult leaders recruited more followers than subadult ones. Further, recruitment success was higher during the peak of the dry season, when predation risk appeared to be higher. Distances of single group movements did not depend on the initiator’s sex and age or on ecological seasons. Our results provide new insights into seasonal variability of coordination processes and the role of social dominance in lemur group movements, thereby contributing to a comparative perspective from a primate radiation that evolved group living independently of anthropoids.
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Kappeler PM, Fichtel C. Female reproductive competition in Eulemur rufifrons: eviction and reproductive restraint in a plurally breeding Malagasy primate. Mol Ecol 2011; 21:685-98. [PMID: 21880091 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-294x.2011.05255.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
In mammals with female philopatry, co-resident females inevitably compete with each other for resources or reproductive opportunities, thereby reducing the kin-selected benefits of altruism towards relatives. These counteracting forces of cooperation and competition among kin should be particularly pronounced in plurally breeding species with limited alternative breeding opportunities outside the natal group. However, little is still known about the costs of reproductive competition on females' fitness and the victims' potential counter-strategies. Here we summarize long-term behavioural, demographic and genetic data collected on a plurally breeding primate from Madagascar to illuminate mechanisms and effects of female reproductive competition, focusing on forcible eviction and potential reproductive restraint. The main results of our study indicate that females in groups of redfronted lemurs (Eulemur rufifrons) above a critical size suffer from competition from their close relatives: females in larger groups face an increased probability of not giving birth as well as a higher probability of being evicted, especially during the annual mating and birth seasons. Eviction is not predicted by the number of adult females, the number of close female relatives, female age or inter-annual variation in rainfall but only by total group size. Thus, eviction in this species is clearly linked with reproductive competition, it cannot be forestalled by reproductive restraint or having many relatives in the group, and it occurs in the absence of a clear dominance hierarchy. Our study therefore also underscores the notion that potential inclusive fitness benefits from living with relatives may have been generally over-rated and should not be taken for granted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter M Kappeler
- Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology Unit, German Primate Center, Göttingen, Germany.
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Clough D, Heistermann M, Kappeler PM. Individual Facial Coloration in Male Eulemur fulvus rufus: A Condition-dependent Ornament? INT J PRIMATOL 2009; 30:859-875. [PMID: 19946601 PMCID: PMC2780611 DOI: 10.1007/s10764-009-9379-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2009] [Accepted: 08/05/2009] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Researchers studying individual variation in conspicuous skin coloration in primates have suggested that color indicates male quality. Although primate fur color can also be flamboyant, the potential condition dependence and thus signaling function of fur remains poorly studied. We studied sources of variation in sexually dichromatic facial hair coloration in red-fronted lemurs (Eulemur fulvus rufus). We collected data on 13 adult males in Kirindy Forest, Madagascar, during two study periods in 2006 and 2007, to determine whether variation in facial hair coloration correlates with male age, rank, androgen status, and reproductive success. We quantified facial hair coloration via standardized digital photographs of each male, assessed androgen status using fecal hormone measurements, and obtained data on reproductive success through genetic paternity analyses. Male facial hair coloration showed high individual variation, and baseline coloration was related to individual androgen status but not to any other parameter tested. Color did not reflect rapid androgen changes during the mating season. However, pronounced long-term changes in androgen levels between years were accompanied by changes in facial hair coloration. Our data suggest that facial hair coloration in red-fronted lemur males is under proximate control of androgens and may provide some information about male quality, but it does not correlate with dominance rank or male reproductive success.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dagmar Clough
- Department of Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, German Primate Center, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
- Department of Reproductive Biology, German Primate Center, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
- Department of Anthropology and Sociobiology, University of Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Michael Heistermann
- Department of Reproductive Biology, German Primate Center, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Peter M. Kappeler
- Department of Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, German Primate Center, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
- Department of Anthropology and Sociobiology, University of Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
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