“Friendship” with Males: A Female Counterstrategy to Infanticide in Chacma Baboons of the Okavango Delta
نویسنده
چکیده
___–1 ___ 0 ___ +1 The fundamental conflict of reproductive interests between males and females, originally articulated by Trivers (1972) and Parker (1979), may have diverse evolutionary consequences at multiple levels: genetic, morphological, physiological , social, ecological, life historical (Arnqvist and Rowe 2005; Chapman 2006). This volume addresses one dramatic manifestation of this conflict: coer-cive behavior directed at females by adult males. This phenomenon draws our attention immediately to selection on females for adaptive strategies countering the costs of male coercion. In this chapter, I examine evidence for one such proposed counterstrategy in one particular system: " friendship " in a population of chacma baboons. " Friendship " refers to a cohesive social relationship between an anestrous female and an adult male (Figure 15.1). Smuts (1985) originally developed the concept in her classic study of olive baboons (Papio hamadryas anubis). Though sometimes labeled differently by various researchers, friendships have been observed in other olive baboon populations (Ransom and Ransom 1971), as well as in yellow baboons (P. h. cynocephalus) (Altmann 1980) and chacma baboons Friendship is a general feature of multimale, multifemale baboon societies, though it is not limited to baboons (Manson 1994; Palombit 1999) and does not necessarily have a unitary functional explanation. This chapter focuses on research conducted for over a decade on a population of chacma baboons inhabiting the Okavango Delta in northwestern Botswana. These baboons live in relatively large groups (mean = 75 individuals)
منابع مشابه
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A " friendship " in wild chacma baboons of the Okavango Delta: adult male, adult female, and her infant. (Photo by Ryne A. Palombit.)
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