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Sexual selection and reproductive careers in mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx)

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Abstract

In sexually dimorphic, polygynous species, where males provide little parental care and competition between males for access to fertile females is high, sexual selection theory predicts sex differences in age-specific reproductive output and mortality profiles, and greater variance in lifetime reproductive success in males than in females. We examined age-specific reproductive output, mortality patterns and the extent and causes of variation in reproductive success for a semi-free-ranging colony of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx, Cercopithecidae) in Franceville, Gabon, using long-term (20 year) demographic records and microsatellite parentage analysis. Although differences in the demography and feeding ecology of this closed, provisioned colony, in comparison with wild mandrills, limit interpretation of our results, sex differences in reproductive output and mortality showed the patterns predicted by sexual selection theory. Mortality was higher in males than in females after sexual maturity, and lifespan was significantly shorter in males (mean 14 year) than in females (>22 year). Age at first reproduction was significantly earlier in females (mean 4.2 year) than in males (11.6 year), and male reproductive output declined earlier. All females of breeding age produced offspring; while only 17 of 53 sexually mature males (32%) sired. Males sired a maximum of 41 offspring, versus 17 in females, and variance in male reproductive output was significantly greater than in females at all ages. The most important influence on variation in lifetime reproductive output in both sexes was joint variation between length of the breeding period and reproductive rate, due to lower reproductive rates in younger animals. Finally, social rank significantly influenced reproductive output in both sexes: high-ranking females began their reproductive careers earlier and had a higher subsequent reproductive rate than low-ranking females, while males that achieved top rank during their career sired far more offspring than males that did not.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Centre International de Recherches Médicales and past and present staff of the Primate Centre for making this study possible. Colony conditions comply with the current laws of the Republic of Gabon. The CIRMF is financed by the Gabonese government, Total Gabon and the Ministère Français des Affaires Etrangères. Mandrill paternity analyses were funded by a National Institutes of Health USA grant to Dr. Preston A. Marx, Tulane University, USA. JMS was supported during a part of the data collection by a research studentship from the Medical Research Council, UK and a CIRMF internship, and during writing of the manuscript by a Leverhulme Trust project grant award to Dr. Leslie A. Knapp, Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge. MC was supported by the Ministère Français des Affaires Etrangères while conducting paternity analyses. We are grateful to three anonymous reviewers for suggesting improvements to the manuscript

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  1. Centre International de Recherches Médicales, BP 769, Franceville, Gabon

    Joanna M. Setchell, Marie Charpentier & E. Jean Wickings

  2. Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DZ, UK

    Joanna M. Setchell

  3. Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionelle et Evolutive, CNRS, 1919 Route de Mende, 34000, Montpellier, France

    Marie Charpentier

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  1. Joanna M. Setchell
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Setchell, J.M., Charpentier, M. & Wickings, E.J. Sexual selection and reproductive careers in mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 58, 474–485 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-005-0946-2

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