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IPS Conference 2006
Abstracts
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Abstract # 77:
Scheduled for Tuesday,
June 27, 2006
10:00 AM-10:20 AM:
Session 13 (Kidepo)
Symposium
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MATING CONFLICT IN PRIMATES: NEW MODELS AND NEW EVIDENCE |
C. P. van Schaik and G. Pradhan
Anthropologisches Institut & Museum, Universitaet Zuerich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, Zuerich, 8057-CH, Switzerland |
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| Several features of the reproductive biology of female primates are unusual among mammals: ovarian cycles with lengthy follicular phases, long mating periods within a cycle, number of cycles per conception and their timing, copulation calls, and exaggerated sexual swellings. These features also show striking differences among primate lineages. The first approach to explain this variation assumes the existence of behavioral conflict between potential mates over the frequency and timing of matings. Female preferences may conflict with those of the different males in the social unit. A model of infanticide avoidance suggests that female mating preferences will evolve that should on average produce the optimum paternity distribution across all potential mating partners, but that this entails conflict with the top-ranking male. From this model it follows that when direct female mate choice is costly, we should expect changes in reproductive biology that make it more likely that she approaches her optimum mate distribution. An alternative approach suggests that females should prefer dominant males because of genetic and immediate ecological benefits. Here, we re-examine the optimum paternity distribution from the female perspective under different conditions (male tenure, takeovers from outside), review the evidence for female choice of weapons or larger size rather than ornaments in a variety of animals, and re-examine the presence of these female counterstrategies by lineage. |
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Modified: 18 December 2005
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