Abstract
Snub-nosed monkeys exhibit a rare multilevel social system composed of several one-male units (OMU) and at least one all-male unit (AMU). The AMU comprises males who are blocked from access to females by resident males in the OMUs, and how these satellite males achieve reproductive success is still unclear. To investigate their reproductive strategies, we focused on the AMU in a band of provisioned black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus bieti) in Yunnan, China. Behaviors that AMU males use to gain access to females (i.e. immigration, male takeover, and sexual interaction with females) were recorded and compared with resident OMU males to explore how AMU bachelors achieve reproductive success when they are denied stable access to females. We found that in response to solicitation from females, adult and sub-adult members of the AMU responded more actively than resident males, and the bachelors actively initiated mating with females when the latter's resident male was temporarily absent. These mating opportunities mostly coincided with the peak mating season in OMUs, and probably allowed bachelors to sire some offspring. We also found that for some AMU adults, taking over an OMU is the main strategy used to gain stable access to females, and these males repeatedly migrate between bands. AMU members therefore show multiple strategies that allow them to gain some degree of reproductive success.
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Acknowledgements
We thank anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier drafts of the paper. We would have been unable to carry out the demanding field work without the help of our field assistants led by JH Yu. We especially appreciate Dr. DY Li for his valuable suggestions for the study, and we thank Mr. HF Xie and Mr. T Zhong for permitting us to work at Baimaxueshan Nature Reserve. We also appreciate Drs. LW Cui, T Jin, YC Long, and Dr. W Xiao for good suggestions. This research is part of the Tacheng Golden Monkey Research Project, which is co-founded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30630016; 30870375).
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Guo, C., Krzton, A., Ruan, X. et al. Reproductive strategy of bachelors in a snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) all-male unit. Primates 61, 291–299 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-019-00789-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-019-00789-y