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Morrison RE, Eckardt W, Stoinski TS, Rosenbaum S. Cumulative early-life adversity does not predict reduced adult longevity in wild gorillas. Curr Biol 2023; 33:2307-2314.e4. [PMID: 37192615 PMCID: PMC10264970 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.04.051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2022] [Revised: 02/24/2023] [Accepted: 04/21/2023] [Indexed: 05/18/2023]
Abstract
Extensive research across fields has repeatedly confirmed that early-life adversity (ELA) is a major selective force for many taxa, in part via its ties to adult health and longevity.1,2,3 Negative effects of ELA on adult outcomes have been documented in a wide range of species, from fish to birds to humans.4 We used 55 years of long-term data collected on 253 wild mountain gorillas to examine the effects of six putative sources of ELA on survival, both individually and cumulatively. Although cumulative ELA was associated with high mortality in early life, we found no evidence that it had detrimental consequences for survival later in life. Experiencing three or more forms of ELA was associated with greater longevity, with a 70% reduction in the risk of death across adulthood, driven specifically by greater longevity in males. Although this higher survival in later life is likely a consequence of sex-specific viability selection5 during early life due to the immediate mortality consequences of adverse experiences, patterns in our data also suggest that gorillas have significant resilience to ELA. Our findings demonstrate that the detrimental consequences of ELA on later life survival are not universal, and indeed largely absent in one of humans' closest living relatives. This raises important questions about the biological roots of sensitivity to early experiences and the protective mechanisms that contribute to resiliency in gorillas, which could be critical for understanding how best to encourage similar resiliency to early-life shocks in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robin E Morrison
- Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, PO Box 105, Musanze, Rwanda; Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, Department of Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QG, UK.
| | | | | | - Stacy Rosenbaum
- Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
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2
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Rosenbaum S, Silk JB. Pathways to paternal care in primates. Evol Anthropol 2022; 31:245-262. [PMID: 35289027 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21942] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2021] [Revised: 10/01/2021] [Accepted: 01/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Natural selection will favor male care when males have limited alternative mating opportunities, can invest in their own offspring, and when care enhances males' fitness. These conditions are easiest to fulfill in pair-bonded species, but neither male care nor stable "breeding bonds" that facilitate it are limited to pair-bonded species. We review evidence of paternal care and extended breeding bonds in owl monkeys, baboons, Assamese macaques, mountain gorillas, and chimpanzees. The data, which span social/mating systems and ecologies, suggest that there are multiple pathways by which conditions conducive to male care can arise. This diversity highlights the difficulty of making inferences about the emergence of male care in early hominins based on single traits visible in the fossil record. We discuss what types of data are most needed and the questions yet to be answered about the evolution of male care and extended breeding bonds in the primate order.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stacy Rosenbaum
- Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
| | - Joan B Silk
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA.,Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA
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3
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Bray J, Murray CM, Gilby IC, Stanton MA. Immature Male Chimpanzees’ (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) Social Relationships with Adult Males, but Not Peers, Persist into Adulthood. INT J PRIMATOL 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s10764-021-00235-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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4
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Städele V, Vigilant L, Strum SC, Silk JB. Extended male–female bonds and potential for prolonged paternal investment in a polygynandrous primate (Papio anubis). Anim Behav 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.01.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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5
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Létang B, Mulot B, Alerte V, Bionda T, Britton L, ter Meulen T, Szánthó J, Guéry JP, Sueur C. Social proximities of developing gorilla males (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in European zoos: The consequences of castration and social composition. Appl Anim Behav Sci 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2020.105175] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
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6
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Gettler LT, Boyette AH, Rosenbaum S. Broadening Perspectives on the Evolution of Human Paternal Care and Fathers’ Effects on Children. ANNUAL REVIEW OF ANTHROPOLOGY 2020. [DOI: 10.1146/annurev-anthro-102218-011216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Unlike most mammals, human fathers cooperate with mothers to care for young to an extraordinary degree. Human paternal care likely evolved alongside our unique life history strategy of raising slow-developing, energetically costly children, often in rapid succession. Adaptive frameworks generally assume that paternal provisioning played a critical role in this pattern's emergence. We draw on nonhuman primate data to propose that nonprovisioning forms of low-cost hominin male care were potentially foundational and ratcheted up through evolutionary time, helping facilitate social contexts for later subsistence specialization and sharing. We then argue for expanding the breadth of anthropological research on paternal effects in families, particularly in three domains: direct care and teaching;social capital cultivation; and reduction of family conflict. Anthropologists can greatly contribute to conversations about the determinants of children's development across contexts, but we need to ask more expansive questions about the pathways through which caregivers (including fathers) affect child outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lee T. Gettler
- Department of Anthropology, and Eck Institute for Global Health, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA
| | - Adam H. Boyette
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology, and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Stacy Rosenbaum
- Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA
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7
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Šandlová K, Komárková M, Ceacero F. Daddy, daddy cool: stallion-foal relationships in a socially-natural herd of Exmoor ponies. Anim Cogn 2020; 23:781-793. [PMID: 32335767 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01388-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2020] [Revised: 04/14/2020] [Accepted: 04/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Different forms of direct paternal investment have been described in mammals. One such species where paternal care was noticed, but remains poorly understood, is the horse (Equus caballus), where the male keeps a long-term relationship with several females and offspring. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyse the interactions between the harem stallion and his foals. Two herds of Exmoor ponies living under semi-feral conditions in two separate reserves within Czech Republic were studied, each during one of the two consecutive breeding seasons (in 2016 and 2017). Both herds consisted of a stallion, 14 mares and their offspring (12 and 10 foals). The behaviour of all group members was recorded focusing on the stallion-foal interactions. The results show that the stallion receives more friendly interactions, snapping and playful behaviour from foals compared with adult mares. Furthermore, the stallion is more tolerant than mares, and actively plays with his offspring. There is no statistical difference in the sex of the foals in the stallion-foal interactions; however, male foals are more active than female foals in interacting with their father. The probability of a certain behaviour occurring between adult and foals changed over time. The stallion's presence might, therefore, be crucial for the physical and psychological development of the foals, especially the colts. These results may bring new insight into the common management of domestic horses, where stallions are usually kept separately and are not allowed to form natural groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kateřina Šandlová
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
| | - Martina Komárková
- Department of Animal Science and Food Processing, Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Praha, Czech Republic
| | - Francisco Ceacero
- Department of Animal Science and Food Processing, Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Praha, Czech Republic
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8
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9
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Rosenbaum S, Gettler LT. With a little help from her friends (and family) part I: the ecology and evolution of non-maternal care in mammals. Physiol Behav 2019; 193:1-11. [PMID: 29933836 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2017.12.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2017] [Revised: 11/27/2017] [Accepted: 12/20/2017] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
In the class Mammalia, most young are cared for exclusively by their mothers. In species where mothers receive help, however, non-maternal caregivers may play a crucial role in development and life history trajectories. In turn, recipients of such care may have important impacts on caregivers of all types. In Part I of this overview, we briefly review the evolutionary barriers to widespread non-maternal care in mammals, and explain why the exceptions are of particular theoretical importance. We also summarize the current understanding of the selective forces leading to non-maternal care, and the taxa and types of caretakers amongst which it occurs. Finally, we argue for a fresh look at the categorization schemes that have traditionally been used to separate various types of mammalian non-maternal caregivers. This two-part introduction is aimed at scientists from multiple disciplines who study diverse organismal systems. It draws from the social and biological sciences literatures to provide an overview of this special issue of Physiology and Behavior's suite of methodological offerings and theoretical underpinnings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stacy Rosenbaum
- Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, United States; Davee Center for Epidemiology and Endocrinology, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL, United States.
| | - Lee T Gettler
- Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, United States; The Eck Institute for Global Health, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, United States
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10
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Grueter CC, Hale J, Jin R, Judge D, Stoinski T. Infant handling by female mountain gorillas: Establishing its frequency, function, and (ir)relevance for life history evolution. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2019; 168:744-749. [PMID: 30706446 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23791] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2019] [Accepted: 01/18/2019] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Infant handling describes cases in which youngsters are temporarily removed from the care of their mothers and "taken care of" (held, carried, etc.) by other conspecifics. Handlers may gain indirect fitness benefits from these actions and can practice mothering skills, thereby improving the odds of survival of their own infants. Great apes are notable for displaying little infant handling. Apart from anecdotal observations, no published data exist on infant handling in wild mountain gorillas. We tested two of the most pertinent explanations ("kin selection" and "learning to mother") in a wild population of mountain gorillas in Rwanda. We predicted that (a) nulliparous females would exhibit infant handling (i.e., carrying) more than parous females and (b) maternal kin would exhibit more infant handling than nonkin. METHODS We collated 8 years of data on infant carrying behavior collected in 13 groups monitored by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund's Karisoke Research Center. RESULTS Infant handling is an infrequent behavior (1,783 instances over 25,600 observation hours). A strong positive effect of relatedness and handler parity on the frequency of infant handling emerged. CONCLUSIONS While the nature of handler-infant interactions (affiliative, abusive, etc.) remains unstudied, they could constitute alloparental care and could therefore attenuate maternal energetic burden and ultimately allow increased birth rates. However, the rarity of this behavior makes it an unlikely contributor to mountain gorillas' relatively short interbirth intervals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cyril C Grueter
- School of Human Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia.,Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Jennifer Hale
- School of Human Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Ruibing Jin
- Confucius Institute, The University of Western Australia, Claremont, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Debra Judge
- School of Human Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Tara Stoinski
- The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, Atlanta, Georgia.,Zoo Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia
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11
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Alberts SC, Gaillard J. Social influences on survival and reproduction: Insights from a long-term study of wild baboons. J Anim Ecol 2019; 88:47-66. [PMID: 30033518 PMCID: PMC6340732 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12887] [Citation(s) in RCA: 68] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2018] [Accepted: 06/28/2018] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
For social species, the environment has two components: physical and social. The social environment modifies the individual's interaction with the physical environment, and the physical environment may in turn impact individuals' social relationships. This interplay can generate considerable variation among individuals in survival and reproduction. Here, I synthesize more than four decades of research on the baboons of the Amboseli basin in southern Kenya to illustrate how social and physical environments interact to affect reproduction and survival. For immature baboons, social behaviour can both mitigate and exacerbate the challenge of survival. Only c. 50% of live-born females and c. 44% of live-born males reach the median age of first reproduction. Variation in pre-adult survival, growth and development is associated with multiple aspects of the social environment. For instance, conspecifics provide direct care and are a major source of social knowledge about food and the environment, but conspecifics can also represent a direct threat to survival through infanticide. In adulthood, both competition (within and between social groups) and cooperative affiliation (i.e. collective action and/or the exchange of social resources such as grooming) are prominent features of baboon social life and have important consequences for reproduction and survival. For instance, adult females with higher social dominance ranks have accelerated reproduction, and adult females that engage in more frequent affiliative social interactions have higher survival throughout adulthood. The early life environment also has important consequences for adult reproduction and survival, as in a number of other bird and mammal species. In seasonal breeders, early life effects often apply to entire cohorts; in contrast, in nonseasonal and highly social species such as baboons, early life effects are more individual-specific, stemming from considerable variation not only in the early physical environment (even if they are born in the same year) but also in the particulars of their social environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan C. Alberts
- Departments of Biology and Evolutionary AnthropologyDuke UniversityDurhamNorth Carolina
- Institute of Primate ResearchNational Museums of KenyaKarenNairobiKenya
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12
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Robbins MM, Robbins AM. Variation in the social organization of gorillas: Life history and socioecological perspectives. Evol Anthropol 2018; 27:218-233. [PMID: 30325554 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21721] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2018] [Revised: 07/18/2018] [Accepted: 08/06/2018] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
A focus of socioecological research is to understand how ecological, social, and life history factors influence the variability of social organization within and between species. The genus Gorilla exhibits variability in social organization with western gorilla groups being almost exclusively one-male, yet approximately 40% of mountain gorilla groups are multimale. We review five ultimate causes for the variability in social organization within and among gorilla populations: human disturbance, ecological constraints on group size, risk of infanticide, life history patterns, and population density. We find the most evidence for the ecological constraints and life history hypotheses, but an over-riding explanation remains elusive. The variability may hinge on variation in female dispersal patterns, as females seek a group of optimal size and with a good protector male. Our review illustrates the challenges of understanding why the social organization of closely related species may deviate from predictions based on socioecological and life history theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martha M Robbins
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Andrew M Robbins
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
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13
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Rosenbaum S, Vigilant L, Kuzawa CW, Stoinski TS. Caring for infants is associated with increased reproductive success for male mountain gorillas. Sci Rep 2018; 8:15223. [PMID: 30323256 PMCID: PMC6189178 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-33380-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2018] [Accepted: 09/27/2018] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Socioecological theory predicts that male parenting among mammals should be rare due to the large payoffs of prioritizing mating effort over parenting. Although these predictions are generally met, in some promiscuous primate species males overcome this by identifying their offspring, and providing benefits such as protection and resource access. Mountain gorillas, which often organize into multi-male groups, are an intriguing exception. Males frequently affiliate with infants despite not discriminating their own from other males' offspring, raising questions about the function of this behavior. Here we demonstrate that, independent of multiple controls for rank, age, and siring opportunities, male gorillas who affiliated more with all infants, not only their own, sired more offspring than males who affiliated less with young. Predictive margins indicate males in the top affiliation tertile can expect to sire approximately five times more infants than males in the bottom tertile, across the course of their reproductive careers. These findings establish a link between males' fitness and their associations with infants in the absence of kin discrimination or high paternity certainty, and suggest a strategy by which selection could generate more involved male parenting among non-monogamous species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stacy Rosenbaum
- Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
- Davee Center for Epidemiology and Endocrinology, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL, USA.
| | - Linda Vigilant
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Christopher W Kuzawa
- Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
- Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
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14
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Boose K, White F, Brand C, Meinelt A, Snodgrass J. Infant handling in bonobos (Pan paniscus): Exploring functional hypotheses and the relationship to oxytocin. Physiol Behav 2018; 193:154-166. [DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2018.04.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2017] [Revised: 04/08/2018] [Accepted: 04/09/2018] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
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15
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Muller MN. Testosterone and reproductive effort in male primates. Horm Behav 2017; 91:36-51. [PMID: 27616559 PMCID: PMC5342957 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2016.09.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 93] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2016] [Revised: 09/06/2016] [Accepted: 09/07/2016] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Considerable evidence suggests that the steroid hormone testosterone mediates major life-history trade-offs in vertebrates, promoting mating effort at the expense of parenting effort or survival. Observations from a range of wild primates support the "Challenge Hypothesis," which posits that variation in male testosterone is more closely associated with aggressive mating competition than with reproductive physiology. In both seasonally and non-seasonally breeding species, males increase testosterone production primarily when competing for fecund females. In species where males compete to maintain long-term access to females, testosterone increases when males are threatened with losing access to females, rather than during mating periods. And when male status is linked to mating success, and dependent on aggression, high-ranking males normally maintain higher testosterone levels than subordinates, particularly when dominance hierarchies are unstable. Trade-offs between parenting effort and mating effort appear to be weak in most primates, because direct investment in the form of infant transport and provisioning is rare. Instead, infant protection is the primary form of paternal investment in the order. Testosterone does not inhibit this form of investment, which relies on male aggression. Testosterone has a wide range of effects in primates that plausibly function to support male competitive behavior. These include psychological effects related to dominance striving, analgesic effects, and effects on the development and maintenance of the armaments and adornments that males employ in mating competition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin N Muller
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, United States.
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16
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Robbins AM, Gray M, Breuer T, Manguette M, Stokes EJ, Uwingeli P, Mburanumwe I, Kagoda E, Robbins MM. Mothers may shape the variations in social organization among gorillas. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2016; 3:160533. [PMID: 27853570 PMCID: PMC5098995 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.160533] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2016] [Accepted: 09/16/2016] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
When mothers continue to support their offspring beyond infancy, they can influence the fitness of those offspring, the strength of social relationships within their groups, and the life-history traits of their species. Using up to 30 years of demographic data from 58 groups of gorillas in two study sites, this study extends such findings by showing that mothers may also contribute to differences in social organization between closely related species. Female mountain gorillas remained with their sons for significantly longer than western gorillas, which may explain why male philopatry and multimale groups are more common among mountain gorillas. The presence of the putative father and other familiar males did not vary significantly between species, and we found only limited support for the socio-ecological theory that the distribution of adult males is influenced by the distribution of females. Within each gorilla species, variations in those distributions may also reflect the different stages in the typical life cycle of a group. Collectively, our results highlight the potentially far-reaching consequences of maternal support that extends beyond infancy, and they illustrate the opportunity to incorporate additional factors into phylogenetic analyses of variations in social organization, including studies of human evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew M. Robbins
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Maryke Gray
- Formerly with the International Gorilla Conservation Programme, PO Box 931, Kigali, Rwanda
| | - Thomas Breuer
- Wildlife Conservation Society, Global Conservation Program, 2300 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10460, USA
- Mbeli Bai Study, Wildlife Conservation Society—Congo Program, BP 14537 Brazzaville, Republic of Congo
| | - Marie Manguette
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Mbeli Bai Study, Wildlife Conservation Society—Congo Program, BP 14537 Brazzaville, Republic of Congo
| | - Emma J. Stokes
- Wildlife Conservation Society, Global Conservation Program, 2300 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10460, USA
| | - Prosper Uwingeli
- Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda Development Board, PO Box 6239, Gishushu, Kigali, Rwanda
| | - Innocent Mburanumwe
- Parc National des Virunga-sud, Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature, c/o IGCP-DRC, B.P. 137 Gisenyi, Rwanda
| | - Edwin Kagoda
- Formerly with the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, Uganda Wildlife Authority, PO Box 3530, Kampala, Uganda
| | - Martha M. Robbins
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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17
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Rosenbaum S, Hirwa JP, Silk JB, Vigilant L, Stoinski TS. Infant Mortality Risk and Paternity Certainty Are Associated with Postnatal Maternal Behavior toward Adult Male Mountain Gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei). PLoS One 2016; 11:e0147441. [PMID: 26863300 PMCID: PMC4749219 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147441] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2015] [Accepted: 01/03/2016] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Sexually selected infanticide is an important source of infant mortality in many mammalian species. In species with long-term male-female associations, females may benefit from male protection against infanticidal outsiders. We tested whether mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) mothers in single and multi-male groups monitored by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund's Karisoke Research Center actively facilitated interactions between their infants and a potentially protective male. We also evaluated the criteria mothers in multi-male groups used to choose a preferred male social partner. In single male groups, where infanticide risk and paternity certainty are high, females with infants <1 year old spent more time near and affiliated more with males than females without young infants. In multi-male groups, where infanticide rates and paternity certainty are lower, mothers with new infants exhibited few behavioral changes toward males. The sole notable change was that females with young infants proportionally increased their time near males they previously spent little time near when compared to males they had previously preferred, perhaps to encourage paternity uncertainty and deter aggression. Rank was a much better predictor of females' social partner choice than paternity. Older infants (2-3 years) in multi-male groups mirrored their mothers' preferences for individual male social partners; 89% spent the most time in close proximity to the male their mother had spent the most time near when they were <1 year old. Observed discrepancies between female behavior in single and multi-male groups likely reflect different levels of postpartum intersexual conflict; in groups where paternity certainty and infanticide risk are both high, male-female interests align and females behave accordingly. This highlights the importance of considering individual and group-level variation when evaluating intersexual conflict across the reproductive cycle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stacy Rosenbaum
- Department of Anthropology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
| | | | - Joan B. Silk
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
- Institute for Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
| | - Linda Vigilant
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Tara S. Stoinski
- Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
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18
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Rosenbaum S, Hirwa JP, Silk JB, Stoinski TS. Relationships Between Adult Male and Maturing Mountain Gorillas (
Gorilla beringei beringei
) Persist Across Developmental Stages and Social Upheaval. Ethology 2015. [DOI: 10.1111/eth.12457] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Stacy Rosenbaum
- Department of Anthropology University of California‐Los Angeles Los Angeles CA USA
| | | | - Joan B. Silk
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change Arizona State University Tempe AZ USA
- Institute of Human Origins Arizona State University Tempe AZ USA
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19
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Rosenbaum S, Maldonado-Chaparro AA, Stoinski TS. Group structure predicts variation in proximity relationships between male-female and male-infant pairs of mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei). Primates 2015; 57:17-28. [PMID: 26386711 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-015-0490-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2015] [Accepted: 08/30/2015] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Relationships between conspecifics are influenced by both ecological factors and the social organization they live in. Systematic variation of both--consistent with predictions derived from socioecology models--is well documented, but there is considerable variation within species and populations that is poorly understood. The mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei) is unusual because, despite possessing morphology associated with male contest competition (e.g., extreme sexual dimorphism), they are regularly observed in both single-male and multimale groups. Both male-female and male-infant bonds are strong because males provide protection against infanticide and/or predation. Risk of these threats varies with social structure, which may influence the strength of social relationships among group members (including females and offspring, if females with lower infant mortality risk are less protective of infants). Here, we investigate the relationship between group structure and the strength of proximity relationships between males and females, males and infants, and females and offspring. Data come from 10 social groups containing 1-7 adult males, monitored by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund's Karisoke Research Center in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. After controlling for group size and infant age, association strength was similar for male-female pairs across group types with both dominant and nondominant males, but male-infant relationships were strongest in single-male groups where paternity certainty was high and animals had fewer social partners to choose from. The male:female and male:infant ratios better predicted both male-female and male-infant associations than the absolute number of males, females, or infants did. The fewer the number of males per female or infant, the more both pair types associated. Dominant males in groups containing fewer males had higher eigenvector centrality (a measure of importance in a social network) than dominant males in groups with more males. Results indicate that nondominant males are an important influence on relationships between dominant males and females/infants despite their peripheral social positions, and that relationships between males and infants must be considered an important foundation of gorilla social structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- S Rosenbaum
- Department of Anthropology, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA. .,Institute for Mind and Biology, University of Chicago, 940 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA.
| | - A A Maldonado-Chaparro
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - T S Stoinski
- The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, Atlanta, GA, USA
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Rosenbaum S, Hirwa J, Silk J, Vigilant L, Stoinski T. Male rank, not paternity, predicts male–immature relationships in mountain gorillas, Gorilla beringei beringei. Anim Behav 2015. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.02.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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21
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Reproductive competition and inbreeding avoidance in a primate species with habitual female dispersal. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2015. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-015-1930-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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22
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Gettler LT. Applying socioendocrinology to evolutionary models: Fatherhood and physiology. Evol Anthropol 2014; 23:146-60. [DOI: 10.1002/evan.21412] [Citation(s) in RCA: 78] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
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23
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Robbins AM, Gray M, Uwingeli P, Mburanumwe I, Kagoda E, Robbins MM. Variance in the reproductive success of dominant male mountain gorillas. Primates 2014; 55:489-99. [DOI: 10.1007/s10329-014-0426-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2013] [Accepted: 04/19/2014] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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24
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Paternal relatedness predicts the strength of social bonds among female rhesus macaques. PLoS One 2013; 8:e59789. [PMID: 23527268 PMCID: PMC3603864 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059789] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2012] [Accepted: 02/18/2013] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Forming strong, equitable, and enduring social bonds with a few individuals in a group carries adaptive benefits in terms of increased longevity, offspring survival and paternity success in birds and mammals, including humans. These recent insights generated a new interest in the factors creating variation in the strength of social relationships. Whether and how animals discriminate paternal kin from non-kin and bias their social behavior accordingly is being debated. This study explores the relative importance of dominance rank, age, maternal and paternal relatedness in shaping dyadic affiliative relationships in a group of 30 captive rhesus macaque females. The strength of social relationships, measured by the composite sociality index from observational data, was independently predicted in GLMMs by both maternal and paternal relatedness as well as rank similarity. In addition, social bonds between paternal half-sisters were stronger than between distantly related kin suggesting that females biased their affiliative effort towards paternal relatives. Despite identical relatedness coefficients bonds between mothers and their daughters were three times as strong as those between full sisters. Together these results add to the growing body of evidence for paternal kin biases in affiliative behavior and highlight that females prefer descendent over lateral kin.
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Alberts SC, Fitzpatrick CL. Paternal care and the evolution of exaggerated sexual swellings in primates. Behav Ecol 2012; 23:699-706. [PMID: 24771988 PMCID: PMC3999376 DOI: 10.1093/beheco/ars052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2010] [Revised: 03/06/2012] [Accepted: 08/03/2012] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The exaggerated sexual swellings exhibited by females of some primate species have been of interest to evolutionary biologists since the time of Darwin. We summarize existing hypotheses for their function and evolution and categorize these hypotheses within the context of 3 types of variation in sexual swelling size: 1) variation within a single sexual cycle, 2) variation between the sexual cycles of a single female, and 3) differences between females. We then propose the Paternal Care Hypothesis for the function of sexual swellings, which posits that exaggerated sexual swellings function to elicit the right quantity and quality of male care for a female's infant. As others have noted, swellings may allow females to engender paternity confusion, or they may allow females to confer relative paternal certainty on one male. Key to our hypothesis is that both of these scenarios create an incentive for one or more males to provide care. This hypothesis builds on previous hypotheses but differs from them by highlighting the elicitation of paternal care as a key function of swellings. Our hypothesis predicts that true paternal care (in which males accurately differentiate and provide assistance to their own offspring) will be most common in species in which exaggerated swellings accurately signal the probability of conception, and males can monopolize females during the window of highest conception probability. Our hypothesis also predicts that females will experience selection to behave in ways that either augment paternity confusion or enhance paternal certainty depending on their social and demographic contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan C Alberts
- Department of Biology, Duke University, Box 90338, Durham, NC 27705, USA ; Institute of Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 24481-00502, Karen, Nairobi, Kenya
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