Life-history and behavioral consequences of competition between solitary and pair-bonded primate conspecifics

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

The ability to establish, develop, and maintain social relationships is important in many species, including humans. There are positive effects of social bonds on health, mortality, and reproduction. In this project, the researchers will examine behavioral, demographic and genetic factors that may contribute to the ability of an individual to establish successful social relationships. Focusing on a non-human primate model in which both father and mother provide care to their young, the researchers will study interactions between reproducing pair-bonded adults and solitary non-reproducing ones. This research will contribute to a better understanding of social relationships, including mating and parenting relationships, in pair-living, monogamous groups. The team will train nine undergraduate students, two Ph.D. students and one postdoctoral researcher from groups underrepresented in STEM fields. International collaborations with researchers in Argentina will be strengthened, and the investigators will expand efforts to foster the development of the biological anthropology discipline in Latin America. At the national level, outreach activities will include working with programs involving underrepresented minority high-school and undergraduate students in research (STARS program at the Yale Peabody Museum) and creating a public series of presentations based on their work for topics regularly covered in animal behavior and biological anthropology courses. This research project occurs within the Owl Monkey Project of Argentina, an international research program to advance knowledge and theory about the evolution of pair-bonding, monogamy, and paternal care. In this new study, a team of researchers, undergraduate students, graduate students and postdocs will collect demographic and genetic data from individuals in 60 groups of owl monkeys. The investigators will study solitary individuals who have left their natal group but have not yet pair-bonded, as well as pair-bonded adults. The solitary individuals need to enter a group to reproduce, which generates intense competition between solitary and pair-bonded adults. Data collected as part of this project will be used to evaluate how competition between solitary floaters and pair-bonded adults influences infant development and survival, natal dispersal patterns, pair-bond formation and stability, and mating patterns. In addition, because this primate species shows very little physical difference between males and females, but intense competition in both sexes, these data will be valuable for understanding the evolution of sex-specific morphologies and behaviors. The project will therefore make theoretical and empirical contributions to a number of concepts that are central to biological anthropology and evolutionary biology. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.