Publication Type: | Journal Article |
Year of Publication: | 1993 |
Authors: | Baker, AJ, Dietz, JM, Kleiman, DG |
Journal: | Animal Behaviour |
Volume: | 46 |
Date Published: | 1993 |
ISBN Number: | 0003-3472 |
Keywords: | Panthera leo |
Abstract: | Abstract. Recent reviews of field data on marmosets and tamarins (Callitrichidae) conclude that wild callitrichids exhibit a variable breeding system with a high incidence of cooperative polyandry, contrasting with the long-held supposition of monogamy for this Neotropical primate family. In this study on a wild population of golden lion tamarins, Leontopithecus rosalia, approximately 40% of groups contained two non-natal adult males. Both males cared for infants and, in some groups, both males copulated with the reproductive female. However, there was evidence for a dominant/subordinate relationship between males in most groups. Ovulation was probably not concealed, and dominant males were responsible for almost all sexual behaviour when females were likely to be fertile. A demographic model indicated that a currently non-reproductive subordinate male that waited for the dominant male in his group to die or for a breeding vacancy in an adjacent group could expect higher lifetime reproductive success than a male that left a subordinate position in search of breeding opportunities elsewhere. Thus, the observed stability of two-male groups does not require non-zero certainty of paternity for the subordinate male. A polyandrous group structure is common in this population, but paternity is probably monopolized by a single dominant male in most groups. |
URL: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347283712996 |
Behavioural evidence for monopolization of paternity in multi-male groups of golden lion tamarins
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