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Population Genetics, Dispersal, and Kinship Among Wild Squirrel Monkeys (Saimiri sciureus macrodon): Preferential Association Between Closely Related Females and Its Implications for Insect Prey Capture Success

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Abstract

Little genetic information is available to evaluate hypotheses concerning the parameters that affect population genetic structure in primate taxa that exhibit interspecific variation in social systems, such as squirrel monkeys (Saimiri). Here, we used genetic data to assess dispersal patterns, kin structure, and preferential association with same-sex kin in a wild population of Saimiri sciureus macrodon. We also analyzed behavioral data to assess whether individuals that maintain shorter interindividual distances show increased insect foraging success. If there was greater male than female dispersal, then we expected mean pairwise relatedness, F ST values, and intragroup mean corrected assignment indices to be greater among adult females than among adult males. We also expected matrices of pairwise affinity indices (PAIs) for “association” (time spent ≤5 m) and “proximity” (time spent ≤10 m) among female dyads to positively correlate with a matrix of female pairwise relatedness. Not only did we find support for female philopatry, but we also found significant positive relationships between the relatedness matrix and each of the PAI matrices: females were more likely to be associated with (and proximal to) close female relatives than more distant relatives or unrelated individuals. Foraging analyses revealed that females had higher insect capture rates than males, and this sex difference may be related to a smaller mean interindividual distance among closely related female group members. Our result shows how estimates of genetic relatedness are useful for testing predictions regarding the evolution of sex-biased dispersal patterns, as well as potential relationships between kin-biased social behaviors and foraging success.

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Acknowledgments

We thank A. Melin and L. Brent for the invitation to contribute to this issue. We are grateful to R. Raaum for support with statistical analyses. We thank the following for providing project support in the field: D. Mosquera; M. Rotundo; G. de Luna; L. Matthews; A. Link; C. Schmitt; M. Field; Y. Shimooka; and field assistants E. Rothwell, C. Rosin, D. Harrison-Atlas, Z. Seilo, C. Larson, and L. Harmon. We express special thanks to A. Burrell, A. Tosi, K. Detwiler, M. Blair, E. Larney, E. Nikitopoulos, N. Ting, and K. Sterner for assistance and advice in the molecular laboratory. We would like to acknowledge A. Melin, L. Brent, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. We are grateful to the government of Ecuador, especially the Ministerio de Ambiente, for research permission, and to the directors and administrators of the Estación de Biodiversidad Tiputini at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), especially Dr. David Romo and Dr. Kelly Swing. This research was supported by a National Science Foundation dissertation improvement grant (DIG #06-22481), a dissertation fieldwork grant from the Wenner–Gren Foundation (DFGA Gr. #7803), and by a NSF IGERT grant (DGE-0333415: New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology).

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  1. The Genome Institute, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, Missouri, 63110, USA

    Michael J. Montague

  2. Department of Anthropology and Center for the Study of Human Origins, New York University, New York, New York, 10003, USA

    Todd R. Disotell

  3. Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712, USA

    Anthony Di Fiore

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Montague, M.J., Disotell, T.R. & Di Fiore, A. Population Genetics, Dispersal, and Kinship Among Wild Squirrel Monkeys (Saimiri sciureus macrodon): Preferential Association Between Closely Related Females and Its Implications for Insect Prey Capture Success. Int J Primatol 35, 169–187 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-013-9723-7

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