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Paternal kin bias in the agonistic interventions of adult female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

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Abstract

When agonistic interventions are nepotistic, individuals are expected to side more often with kin but less often against kin in comparison with non-kin. As yet, however, few mammal studies have been in a position to test the validity of this assertion with respect to paternal relatedness. We therefore used molecular genetic kinship testing to assess whether adult female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) from the free-ranging colony of Cayo Santiago (Puerto Rico) bias their interventions in ongoing dyadic aggressive interactions towards maternal and paternal half-sisters compared with unrelated females. It turned out that females supported maternal half-sisters significantly more often than paternal half-sisters or non-kin regardless of the costs associated with such interventions. Similarly, females targeted maternal half-sisters significantly less often than non-kin when this was associated with high costs. Unrelated females provided significantly higher mean rates of both high- and low-cost support to each other than did paternal half-sisters. However, females targeted paternal half-sisters significantly less often than non-kin when targeting was at low cost, suggesting that females refrain from intervening against paternal half-sisters. Our data confirm the general view that coalition formation in female mammals is a function of both the level of maternal relatedness and of the costs of intervention. The patterns of coalition formation among paternal kin were found to be more complex, and may also differ across species, but clear evidence for paternal kin discrimination was observed in female rhesus as predicted by kin selection theory.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Kessler and J. Berard for permission to work on Cayo Santiago, H. Rösler, I. Barth and A. Trefilov for technical assistance, A. Wollstein and L. Kulik for computer assistance and H. Stenzel for computing the number of opportunities. We are grateful for the constructive comments of five anonymous referees which greatly improved the article. Research was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; Nu 50/3-1,2, Nu 50/6-1, Wi 1808), Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD; to A.W.), national A NaFöG (to A.W.), Fazit-Stiftung (to A.W.), Sandmann-Stiftung (to A.W.), Virchow-Klinikum, UPR Medical Sciences Campus, National Institutes of Health (NIH) [National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) grant CM-5-P40RR003640 award to the CPRC], National Science Foundation (NSF) (to F.B.B.) and through an Emmy–Noether grant from the DFG awarded to A.W. All research procedures were approved by the CPRC and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, in accordance with US Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations and NIH guidelines.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Caribbean Primate Research Center, P.O. Box 906, Punta Santiago, PR, 00741, USA

    Anja Widdig

  2. Department of Biology, Duke University, P.O. Box 90338, Durham, NC, 27708, USA

    Anja Widdig

  3. Institut für Biologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstr. 43, 10115, Berlin, Germany

    Anja Widdig

  4. Institut für Zoo-und Wildtierforschung, Alfred-Kowalke-Str. 17, 10315, Berlin, Germany

    Wolf Jürgen Streich

  5. Zentrum für Funktionelle Genomforschung, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Strasse 47, 50674, Köln, Germany

    Peter Nürnberg

  6. Institut für Medizinische Informatik und Statistik, Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Brunswiker Strasse 10, 24105, Kiel, Germany

    Peter J. P. Croucher & Michael Krawczak

  7. Conservation and Research for Endangered Species, Zoological Society of San Diego, Escondido, CA, 92027, USA

    Fred B. Bercovitch

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  1. Anja Widdig
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Correspondence to Anja Widdig.

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Widdig, A., Streich, W.J., Nürnberg, P. et al. Paternal kin bias in the agonistic interventions of adult female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 61, 205–214 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-006-0251-8

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