DNA Fingerprinting Reveals that Infant Care by Male Barbary Macaques (Macaca sylvanus) Is Not Paternal Investment

Paul, Andreas; Kuester, Jutta; Arnemann, J.

doi:10.1159/000156613

Cited by 27 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Martin, C.P van Schaik, M. Krützen (manuscript submitted) for Gibraltar). Consistent with previous studies (Paul et al 1992Ménard et al 2001), males did not handle their own offspring more often than expected by chance, which refutes the paternal investment hypothesis. The behavioural pattern of infant handling by males was largely consistent with previous findings from an outdoor enclosure in Salem, Germany .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…For dyadic interactions, it has been shown that males did not preferentially handle the infants they sired (Paul et al 1992;Ménard et al 2001) or maternally related infants . Combining these results with data on triadic interactions supported the view that infant handling by males is a selfish behaviour, with male handlers using infants to manage their relationships with other males (originally called the 'agonistic buffering' hypothesis: Deag and Crook 1971;Deag 1980;Taub 1980; or with males gaining increased mating opportunities with the infant's mother .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Patterns of infant handling and relatedness in Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) on Gibraltar

Kümmerli

Martín

2008

Primates

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Among papionin primates, the Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus) shows the most extensive interactions between infants and group members other than the mother. Two different types of interactions occur: (1) long-lasting dyadic interactions between a handler and an infant, and (2) brief triadic interactions between two handlers involving an infant. Previous investigations showed that infant handling by males is best explained as use of infants to manage relationships with other males. In contrast, no adaptive explanation for infant handling by females emerged. Here, we compared the infant-handling pattern between subadult/adult males and subadult/adult females in a free-ranging group of 46 Barbary macaques on Gibraltar to test whether the relationship management hypothesis also applies to female handlers. We further investigated the infant-handling pattern of juveniles and used microsatellite markers to estimate relatedness between infant handlers and the infant's mother. We found that males, females and juveniles all participated extensively in triadic interactions using infants of above-average related females. In contrast, only males and juveniles were highly involved in dyadic interactions with infants of related females, while females rarely handled infants other than their own. The pattern of infant handling was entirely compatible with the predictions of the relationship management hypothesis for males and mostly so for females. Moreover, our genetic analysis revealed that males and females differ in their partner choice: while females preferred to interact with related females, males had no significant preference to interact with related males. We further discuss the observed above-average relatedness values between infant handlers and the infant's mother in the light of kin-selection theory.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of infant handling and relatedness in Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) on Gibraltar

Kümmerli

Martín

2008

Primates

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“…In some baboon species, these preferences may reflect likelihood of paternity to some extent (Nguyen et al 2009;Moscovice et al 2010). In macaques male preferences for infants appear mostly unrelated either to paternity or to past mating (Paul et al 1992;Ménard et al 2001; but see Ménard et al 1992 andOstner et al 2013) but may reflect the male's social relationships with the mother and may be predictive of future mating opportunities (Ménard et al 2001; see also Smuts and Gubernick 2015). Males also choose the male partner in the bridging interaction nonrandomly (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Triadic awareness predicts partner choice in male–infant–male interactions in Barbary macaques

et al. 2016

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Social knowledge beyond one's direct relationships is a key to successful maneuvering of the social world. Individuals gather information on the quality of social relationships between their group companions, which has been termed triadic awareness. Evidence of the use of triadic awareness in natural contexts is limited mainly to conflict management. Here we investigated triadic awareness in wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) in the context of bridging interactions defined as male-infant-male interactions whereby a male (actor) presents an infant to another male (receiver) in order to initiate an affiliative interaction with that male. Analyses based on 1,263 hours of focal observations on ten infants of one wild social group in Morocco supported the hypothesis that males use their knowledge of the relationship between infants and other adult males when choosing a male as a partner for bridging interactions. Specifically, (i) the number of bridging interactions among initiator-infant-receiver triads was affected by the strength of the infant-receiver relationship and (ii) when two males were available as bridging partners, a male was more likely to be chosen as the receiver the stronger his social relationship with the infant in comparison to the other available male was. This demonstrates that non-human primates establish triadic awareness also of temporarily rather dynamic infant-male relationships and use it in naturally occurring affiliative context. Our results contribute to the discussion about the mechanism underlying the acquisition of triadic awareness and the benefits of its usage and lend support to hypotheses linking social complexity to the evolution of complex cognition.

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“…However, when blood samples were collected from infants, mothers, and potential sires, in addition to behavioral data, it was found that males did not preferentially associate with their offspring more than expected by chance. In fact, the majority of male-infant interactions involved unrelated individuals (PAUL et al, 1992). These data suggest that paternal investment is not the driving force behind the male caretaking behavior in Barbary macaques.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Male dominance rank and offspring-initiated affiliative behaviors were not predictors of paternity in a captive group of pigtail macaques (Macaca nemestrina)

Gust

Gordon

Gergits³

et al. 1996

Primates

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ABSTRACT. Paternity of 16 pigtail macaque offspring was determined using a DNA profile analysis and was based on two independent assays of the genome of each individual using multilocus DNA probes. The offspring were members of a group of 59 pigtail macaques, including 5 adult males, 1 subadult male, and 37 adult and subadult females. Rank was unrelated to paternity as the first ranking male sired 0, the second ranking male sired 3; the third ranking male sired 0, the fourth ranking male sired 8, and the fifth ranking male sired 2 offspring. The subadult male sired 0 offspring. The DNA analysis was effective in excluding possible sires of 3 offspring whose mothers had become pregnant by another male before being introduced to the study males. Subsequent semen evaluation revealed an absence of sperm in the semen of the alpha male, but revealed a sperm count within normal limits in the third ranking male, who also sired no offspring. Behavioral data focusing on male-offspring interactions found that offspring did not preferentially affiliate with their sire and that males did not affiliate with their offspring frequently enough for analysis. Thus, this study of one captive pigtail macaque group demonstrates that: (1) rank was not a predictor of reproductive success; and (2) there was no preferential attraction for one's own offspring by males or one's own sire by offspring.

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DNA Fingerprinting Reveals that Infant Care by Male Barbary Macaques (Macaca sylvanus) Is Not Paternal Investment

Cited by 27 publications

References 18 publications

Patterns of infant handling and relatedness in Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) on Gibraltar

Patterns of infant handling and relatedness in Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) on Gibraltar

Triadic awareness predicts partner choice in male–infant–male interactions in Barbary macaques

Male dominance rank and offspring-initiated affiliative behaviors were not predictors of paternity in a captive group of pigtail macaques (Macaca nemestrina)

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