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Adult male replacement and subsequent infant care by male and siblings in socially monogamous owl monkeys (Aotus azarai)

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Abstract

Owl monkeys (Aotus azarai) are small, territorial, socially monogamous primates that show intense infant care by the adult male in the group. It has been hypothesized that male care may be adaptive because it increases offspring survival and/or reduces the metabolic costs to the female of raising the offspring. Alternatively, males may provide care even when they are not related to the infants to increase future reproductive opportunities. We describe changes in infant care patterns that took place after the eviction of the resident male by a solitary male in an owl monkey population in the Argentinean Chaco. The resident male and mother provided all infant care during the first month of life of the infant, until the male was evicted. During the three-day male replacement event, care of the infant was shared among the mother, a four-year-old sister, and a one-year-old brother. The new male began contributing to infant care soon after entering the group, carrying, and interacting socially with the infant in much the same way as any male regularly does. However, despite receiving biparental care from both the original and new resident males, the infant disappeared at the age of four months and was presumed dead. These are the first reports of care by sibling and by non-putative fathers in wild owl monkeys. Given the significant amount of time that new pairs of owl monkeys spend before reproducing, it is possible that male care in owl monkeys functions as mating effort as much as or more than parenting effort.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the J. William Fulbright Scholar Program, Primate Conservation, Inc., Idea Wild, New York University, and the Zoological Society of San Diego for their support. Special thanks are also due to the Argentinean and Formosa Province government for their continued interest in our primate research, and to Federico Middleton and Conrado Cimino of Bellamar Estancias for logistical support at Estancia Guaycolec. EFD conducted this research while a postdoctoral fellow of the Zoological Society of San Diego and an Adjunct Researcher of the CECOAL, Conicet, Argentina. The research described here was done in full agreement with all Argentinean legislation and was approved by the IACUC committee of the Zoological Society of San Diego.

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Correspondence to Eduardo Fernandez-Duque.

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Fernandez-Duque, E., Juárez, C.P. & Di Fiore, A. Adult male replacement and subsequent infant care by male and siblings in socially monogamous owl monkeys (Aotus azarai). Primates 49, 81–84 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-007-0056-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-007-0056-z

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