Mating patterns and sexual swellings in pair-living and multimale groups of wild white-handed gibbons, Hylobates lar
Section snippets
Study Site and Animals
The study was carried out in Khao Yai National Park, central Thailand (101°22′E, 14°26′N). The study area consists of a seasonally wet evergreen rain forest with small patches of secondary growth and is at an elevation of 730–870 m. Data were collected from 12 groups, each with a single multiparous female. Seven of the groups were pair-living while five groups contained two adult males that were unrelated to the female. Those five groups are considered to exhibit multimale group structures
Mating Activity in Relation to Reproductive Conditions and Social System
Mating activity was not confined to specific months or seasons. We observed matings in each month of the year for cycling females and in 11 of 12 months for pregnant females. In total, 442 copulations were recorded (cycling females: 62%, Ncop = 275; pregnant females: 36%, Ncop = 158; one lactating female: Ncop = 9; the lactating female copulated only directly after a male replacement). The frequency of copulations over the total time of observation was similar in cycling (median = 0.12, range =
Discussion
By combining behavioural and endocrinological data we provide direct evidence of flexible mating behaviour in a wild white-handed gibbon population. Specifically we show that, contrary to earlier descriptions of white-handed gibbon mating behaviour (Carpenter, 1940, Ellefson, 1974), the majority of females in our sample are polyandrous and not monoandrous. Although females copulated with multiple males (either the social partner and extragroup males or both males in multiple groups), copulation
Acknowledgments
We thank T. Deschner, R. Mundry, C. Nunn, B. Preston and three anonymous referees for their valuable comments on the manuscript, M. Arandjelovic for improving the manuscript, K. Hodges for access to the laboratory, J. Hagedorn and A. Heistermann for assistance in the laboratory and C. Sagnate, C. Mungpoonklang, S. Sornchaipoom, S. Homros, T. Chaiyakarn and C. Neumann for helping in collecting faecal samples and/or observational data. We are also grateful to the National Research Council of
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2020, Evolution and Human BehaviorFur color change and hormonal development in captive females of northern white-cheeked (Nomascus leucogenys) and buff-cheeked (Nomascus gabriellae) gibbons
2019, General and Comparative EndocrinologyCitation Excerpt :Traditionally, the onset of the sexual maturity in females is connected with the beginning of a regular ovarian cycle, which is characterized by anogenital swelling during the cycle (Barelli et al., 2006; Dahl and Nadler, 1992; Cheyne and Chivers, 2006). The swellings in gibbons are not as exaggerated as in other catarrhine primates (Nunn, 1999); they are mainly limited to labial tissues (Cheyne and Chivers, 2006, Barelli et al., 2008a). Nevertheless, when comparing the swellings in Nomascus females with, for example, those in Hylobates females, we can note just faintly swollen pink labia or more often the absence of swellings.
Estrogenic and progestogenic effects of hormonal contraceptives in relation to sexual behavior: insights into extended sexuality
2017, Evolution and Human BehaviorCitation Excerpt :Recent evidence suggests that females are most promiscuous (least discriminating in both their sexual proceptivity and receptivity) during extended sexuality and most discriminating during estrus (purportedly to bias sireship). Extended sexuality may permit females to obtain direct benefits, in the form of reduced infanticide, while still maintaining some control over sire choice (see also Barelli, Heisermann, Boesch, & Reichard, 2008; Knott, Thompson, Stumpf, & McIntyre, 2010, on potentially similar adaptations in orangutans and white-handed gibbons).1 In humans, by contrast, extended sexuality may have been shaped within the context of pair-bonding, through two possible routes.
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- 1
M. Heistermann is at the German Primate Centre, Kellnerweg 4, 37077, Göttingen, Germany.
- 2
U. H. Reichard is at Southern Illinois University, 4430 Faner Hall, Carbondale, IL 62901-4502, U.S.A.