Abstract
The sexual competence of males reared only with other males (isosexually reared) was compared to the sexual competence of males reared in mixedsex peer groups (heterosexually reared). All subjects were pair-tested with the same 11 females. Isosexually reared males tended to be less sexually active than heterosexually reared males, but the differences were not pronounced. Heterosexually reared males took less time to ejaculate than isosexually reared males, but their ejaculatory frequencies were comparable. Among one peer group of isosexually reared males, their level of sexual competence conformed with their dominance ranks when immature. These results suggest that growing up with female peers is not a prerequisite for the expression of adult sexual behavior among male rhesus macaques and that adult male sexual behavior may be influenced by relative dominance status when immature.
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Funds were provided to the senior author through NIH Grant 5T32HD07118 and to the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center through NIH Grant RR00167.
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Bercovitch, F.B., Roy, M.M., Sladky, K.K. et al. The effects of isosexual rearing on adult sexual behavior in captive male rhesus macaques. Arch Sex Behav 17, 381–388 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01542479
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01542479