Male mating tactics in spider monkeys: sneaking to compete

American Journal of Primatology
K Nicole Gibson

Abstract

I investigated the mating system and male mating tactics for a population of wild spider monkeys (Ateles belzebuth chamek), to identify the behaviors males used to achieve and maintain access to sexually receptive females, and to examine if some males used more tactics than other males and/or had differential access to females. Results show that the mating system mostly involved scramble competition polygyny and that males used a range of mating tactics and behaviors, previously unreported for spider monkeys. The most unusual feature of spider monkey mating behavior was the secretive nature of copulations-nearly all copulations were clandestine, but a few were in the presence of other group members. Fifteen sexually mature males were observed to copulate 43 times. These data provide the first opportunity to evaluate how female availability influences male-male competition. First, the operational sex ratio was highly skewed toward males because usually only one female was receptive in each community per month. Second, females only mated with a few males in their community in any one mating period, but some females mated over the course of multiple consecutive mating periods, eventually mating with most or all of the males in the...Continue Reading

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Mar 17, 2006·American Journal of Primatology·Christina J Campbell

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Citations

Sep 2, 2011·Primates; Journal of Primatology·Colleen M SchaffnerFilippo Aureli
Nov 7, 2014·Primates; Journal of Primatology·Sara AlvarezAndrés Link
Sep 14, 2018·Primates; Journal of Primatology·Kayla S HartwellMary S M Pavelka
Mar 15, 2018·Archives of Sexual Behavior·Laura BusiaColleen M Schaffner

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