Ecology, nutrition, and timing of reproductive events in an Asian primate, the Hanuman langur (<i>Presbytis entellus</i>)

Koenig, Andreas; Borries, Carola; Chalise, Mukesh Kumar; Winkler, Paul

doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1997.tb02778.x

Cited by 159 publications

(158 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Third, our data strongly support the hypothesis that the relationship between ranging and reproductive effort is fundamentally different over different timescales. Within species, over a lifetime, increased ranging is consistently associated with decreased net energy intake, reproductive effort, and maintenance, both in the wild (27)(28)(29) and in the lab (9)(10)(11)(12). In contrast, among species, over evolutionary time, increased ranging is commonly associated with increased reproductive output (Tables 1 and 2; Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Thus, rodents and birds challenged with decreased food per meter in experimental settings increase their ranging but lose weight and spend less energy on maintenance and reproduction (9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14), even when B Ͼ C and feeding is ad libitum. Similarly, daily movement distance increases (16)(17)(18)(19) and body mass and condition decrease (27)(28)(29)(30) during periods of food shortage for mammals in the wild, even though the average estimated food energy gained per meter for most free ranging mammals is over an order of magnitude greater than the travel cost per meter (Fig. 2).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Great ranging associated with greater reproductive investment in mammals

Pontzer

Kamilar

2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Most animals must travel to find food, incurring an unavoidable energy and time cost. Economic theory predicts, and experimental work confirms, that within species, increasing the distance traveled each day to find food has negative fitness consequences, decreasing the amount of energy invested in maintenance, repair, and reproduction. Here, we show that this relationship between daily distance traveled and reproductive success is fundamentally different between species and over evolutionary time in many lineages. Phylogenetically controlled analyses of 161 eutherian mammals indicate that, after controlling for body mass, evolutionary increases in the daily distance traveled are associated with corresponding increases in both total fertility (number of offspring per lifetime) and total offspring mass (grams of offspring per lifetime). This suggests that over evolutionary time, increasing travel distance is often part of a strategy for procuring more food energy and not necessarily a response to decreased food availability. These results have important implications for ecological comparisons among species, including assessments of habitat quality based on locomotor behavior.ecology ͉ energetics ͉ reproduction ͉ life history ͉ foraging economics H ow far will an animal travel each day? A broad range of ecological pressures influence ranging decisions (1-7), making this seemingly straightforward question exceedingly difficult to answer definitively. In the simplest case, in which an animal requiring a net energy intake of E net (J/day) acquires food energy at a constant rate B (J/m) and spends energy on travel at some rate C (J/m), it must travel sufficient distance, D (m/day), so thatPerhaps surprisingly, despite considerable variation and complexity in foraging and ranging behaviors, this simple relationship between daily movement distance, food availability, and energy requirements is generally supported by behavioral observation in a broad range of species. While ecological constraints cannot always be linked to foraging behavior (7) and physiological constraints may limit ranging ability (8), large interspecific comparisons of foraging behavior indicate that daily movement distance, D, is primarily determined by the need to acquire sufficient food energy (2, 3, 6). For example, daily movement distance increases with body size and diet quality, reflecting both size-related increases energy requirements and the relative scarcity of high-quality, energy-dense foods on the landscape (2, 6). Further, decreases in an individual's rate of food acquisition, B, whether through experimental manipulation in the laboratory (9-14), increased foraging group size (1, 4, 6, 15) or through seasonal changes in food availability in the wild (16-19) typically leads to increases in the daily distance traveled.In principle, one might expect longer daily movement distances to be energetically beneficial, since greater D will lead to greater E net as long as B Ͼ C (10, 20). In practice, however, while some species may increase foragi...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Great ranging associated with greater reproductive investment in mammals

Pontzer

Kamilar

2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…The habitat is characterized by a marked seasonal variation in climate, with a clear rainy season from mid-June to the beginning of October, which is associated with an increase in food abundance (Koenig et al 1997). As a consequence, the langur population at Ramnagar demonstrates a seasonal pattern of reproduction, with conceptions being con¢ned to the period from July to November, and the majority of births taking place between February and May (Koenig et al 1997;Ziegler et al 2000).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Loss of oestrus, concealed ovulation and paternity confusion in free-ranging Hanuman langurs

Hestermann

Ziegler

Schaik

et al. 2001

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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Ovarian cycles in catarrhine primates are uniquely characterized by prolonged periods of sexual activity in which the timings of ovulation and copulation do not necessarily correspond. According to current hypotheses of primate social evolution, extended sexuality in multi-male groups might represent part of a female strategy to confuse paternity in order to reduce the risk of infanticide by males. We test this hypothesis by examining mating behaviour in relation to timing of ovulation and paternity outcome in a multi-male group of free-living Hanuman langurs. Using faecal progestogen measurements, we ¢rst document that female langurs have extended receptive periods in which the timing of ovulation is highly variable. Next, we demonstrate the capacity for paternity confusion by showing that ovulation is concealed from males and that copulations progressively decline throughout the receptive phase. Finally, we demonstrate multiple paternity, and show that despite a high degree of monopolization of receptive females by the dominant male, non-dominant males father a substantial proportion of o¡spring. We believe that this is the ¢rst direct evidence that extended periods of sexual activity in catarrhine primates may have evolved as a female strategy to confuse paternity.

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“…In spite of breeding seasonality (births January^June; Koenig et al 1997) the mean interbirth interval of 2.4 years was signi¢cantly shorter if the infant was lost prematurely (Borries 1997). During more than 37 000 h spent in contact with the langurs, one infanticide was witnessed (J. Nikolei and K. Thapa, personal communication; cf.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

DNA analyses support the hypothesis that infanticide is adaptive in langur monkeys

Borries

Launhardt²,

Epplen

et al. 1999

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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Although the killing of dependent infants by adult males is a widespread phenomenon among primates, its causes and consequences still remain hotly debated. According to the sexual selection hypothesis, infanticidal males will gain a reproductive advantage provided that only unrelated infants are killed and that the males increase their chances of siring the next infants. Alternatively, the social pathology hypothesis interprets infanticide as a result of crowded living conditions and, thus, as not providing any advantage. Based on DNA analyses of wild Hanuman langurs (Presbytis entellus) we present the ¢rst evidence that male attackers were not related to their infant victims. Furthermore, in all cases the presumed killers were the likely fathers of the subsequent infants. Our data, therefore, strongly support the sexual selection hypothesis interpreting infanticide as an evolved, adaptive male reproductive tactic.

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Ecology, nutrition, and timing of reproductive events in an Asian primate, the Hanuman langur (Presbytis entellus)

Cited by 159 publications

References 43 publications

Great ranging associated with greater reproductive investment in mammals

Great ranging associated with greater reproductive investment in mammals

Loss of oestrus, concealed ovulation and paternity confusion in free-ranging Hanuman langurs

DNA analyses support the hypothesis that infanticide is adaptive in langur monkeys

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