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Heterosexual copulatory patterns in stumptail macaques (Macaca arctoides) and in other macaque species

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Abstract

A comparison of the mating behavior patterns of several macaque species reveals that the mating behavior of Macaca arctoidesexhibits several unique features. The laboratory groups of stumptail monkeys observed had exceptionally long single-mount copulations characterized by a large number of pelvic thrusts, a slow thrusting rate, and an unusually salient male orgasmic pattern (characterized by body rigidity followed by body spasms and a typical facial expression and vocalization). The frequency with which the copulation culminates in ejaculation is unusually high, and copulating stumptails generally manifest “tieing” in a genital lock after ejaculation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA

    Suzanne Chevalier-Skolnikoff Ph.D.

  2. Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA

    Suzanne Chevalier-Skolnikoff Ph.D.

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  1. Suzanne Chevalier-Skolnikoff Ph.D.
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Additional information

This research was supported in part by the Interdisciplinary Training Program, Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California, San Francisco; by United States Public Health Service Training Grant No. 5-T1-MH-7082 from the National Institute of Public Health; and by Grant No. GS-31943X from the National Science Foundation to Dr. S. L. Washburn of the University of California at Berkeley, given for “Primate Studies and Human Evolution.”

This paper was given as one part of the presentation prepared for the symposium “Male and Female Sexual Behavior in Primate Societies,” Fourth International Congress of Primatology, Portland, Oregon, August 1972. The first part was published as “Male-Female, Female-Female, and Male-Male Sexual Behavior in the Stumptail Monkey, with Special Attention to the Female Orgasm,”Archives of Sexual Behavior 3: 95–116, 1974.

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Chevalier-Skolnikoff, S. Heterosexual copulatory patterns in stumptail macaques (Macaca arctoides) and in other macaque species. Arch Sex Behav 4, 199–220 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01541083

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