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Growth rates in a wild primate population: ecological influences and maternal effects

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Abstract

Growth rate is a life-history trait often linked to various fitness components, including survival, age of first reproduction, and fecundity. Here we present an analysis of growth-rate variability in a wild population of savannah baboons (Papio cynocephalus). We found that relative juvenile size was a stable individual trait during the juvenile period: individuals generally remained consistently large-for-age or small-for-age throughout development. Resource availability, which varied greatly in the study population (between completely wild-foraging and partially food-enhanced social groups), had major effects on growth. Sexual maturity was accelerated for animals in the food-enhanced foraging condition, and the extent and ontogeny of sexual dimorphism differed with resource availability. Maternal characteristics also had significant effects on growth. Under both foraging conditions, females of high dominance rank and multiparous females had relatively large-for-age juveniles. Large relative juvenile size predicted earlier age of sexual maturation for both males and females in the wild-feeding condition. This confirmed that maternal effects were pervasive and contributed to differences among individuals in fitness components.

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Acknowledgements

Appreciation is due to the Office of the President, Republic of Kenya, to the Kenya Wildlife Services, its Amboseli staff and Wardens, the Institute of Primate Research, and R. Leakey, D. Western, J. Else, J. Mwenda and M. Isahakia. Particular thanks go to the Amboseli fieldworkers who contributed to data collection—especially P. Muruthi, R. Mututua, A. Samuels, and S. Sayialel. Analysis was greatly facilitated by L. Moses and L. Gale and a fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript were provided by S. Altmann, S. Arnold, S. Emerson, M. Festa-Bianchet, F. Janzen, S. Lenington, P. Muruthi, M. Pereira, M. Zuk, and two anonymous reviewers. For assistance with manuscript preparation, we are grateful to S.L. Combes and T. Mustra. Additional financial support was provided by NIMH15007, the National Geographic Society, the Chicago Zoological Society, and by NSF IBN-9985910 and its predecessors. This research was conducted under permit no. 13/001/C351 Vol. III from the government of Kenya and IACUC approval from the University of Chicago through 1998, and since 1998 from Princeton University.

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  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA

    Jeanne Altmann

  2. Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA

    Susan C. Alberts

  3. Department of Conservation Biology, Chicago Zoological Society, Brookfield Zoo, Brookfield, IL 60513, USA

    Jeanne Altmann

  4. Institute of Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya

    Jeanne Altmann & Susan C. Alberts

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Altmann, J., Alberts, S.C. Growth rates in a wild primate population: ecological influences and maternal effects. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 57, 490–501 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-004-0870-x

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