Food availability and male deference in the female‐dominant ring‐tailed lemur, Lemur catta

Abstract

Female dominance, a trait common to some Malagasy lemurs, has been viewed as an adaptation that decreases intersexual feeding competition. A hypothesized relationship exists between male “deference” (male submission in the absence of female aggression) and food availability. Sauther (1993) suggested that male ring‐tailed lemurs at the Duke Lemur Center (Pereira et al., 1990) show more deference to females than do males in the wild owing to food abundance in captivity. To reexamine the link between food availability and male deference, we studied agonism and foraging in two nonwild ring‐tailed lemur (Lemur catta) populations: the Los Angeles Zoo and St. Catherines Island (SCI). On SCI, we collected data under two feeding conditions: Low Provisions (low food availability) and High Provisions (high food availability). As expected, male deference measures at our study sites were more similar to measures of deference from other studies of L. catta in captivity than in the wild. Additionally, the change at SCI from low to high food availability was associated with increased male deference to females. Interestingly, male proximity to females during foraging at this location did not notably change between the low to high food availability conditions, suggesting that males were food competitors of females just as often under both feeding conditions. The increase in male deference under conditions of high food availability on SCI was due to males withdrawing more rapidly from female approaches during agonistic interactions. Hence, where food is more abundant, male L. catta are more likely to show submission to females, which appears to be a self‐serving means of avoiding female aggression. Lemur males who are well‐fed appear less apt to risk female aggression to obtain resources than more nutritionally stressed males. Our results support the view of female dominance in lemurs as an adaptive evolutionary response to conditions of resource limitation.

The self-organisation of lemur social systems

“…This differs to findings in a recent empirical study of ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta), a species with strong female dominance over males. The study highlighted that males spontaneously submitted to females more when there was a greater abundance of food, because males were less nutritionally stressed and did not need to risk female aggression to gain access to food (Parga and Thurau, 2022). However, the authors increased the abundance of food by providing provisioned foods on feeding platforms.…”

“…As well as the distribution, the abundance of food has also been suggested to influence the degree of female dominance over males among species of lemur. More abundant food has been suggested to lead to more relaxed dominance relations between males and females (Rasolonjatovo and Irwin, 2019;Sauther, 1993) or cause males to submit more frequently to females (Parga and Thurau, 2022). In empirical studies it may be difficult to separate the effects of the abundance and distribution of food, which may influence interpretations.…”