Conflicts over reproduction in a wild social primate, the chacma baboon

Elise Huchard

Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution, Université de Montpellier - elise.huchard@umontpellier.fr

(seminar in English)

In group-living species, individuals of both sexes can interfere with the reproductive strategies of females. First, males can use sexual coercion to induce females into mating or prevent them from mating with rivals, though we know little about the prevalence and intensity of discrete forms of sexual coercion – where aggression and sex are temporally decoupled. Second, increasing evidence suggests that competition among females to secure reproductive resources, such as mates or allomaternal care, is common but little attention has been devoted to polygynous species – where females associated with the same male may compete aggressively. Here we investigate the forms, intensity and evolutionary benefits of sexual coercion and female reproductive competition in large polygynandrous groups of chacma baboons, and show that reproductive conflicts play a primary role in structuring female-female and male-female relationships.

Related publications:

Baniel A, Cowlishaw G, Huchard E. 2017. Male violence and sexual intimidation in a wild primate society. Current Biology, 27: 2163–2168.

Baniel A, Cowlishaw G, Huchard E. 2016. Strength and stability of male-female associations in a promiscuous primate society. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 70: 761-775.

Huchard E, Charpentier MJE, Marshall H, Knapp LA & Cowlishaw G. 2013. Paternal effects on access to resources in a promiscuous primate society, Behavioral Ecology 24: 229-236.

Huchard E & Cowlishaw G. 2011. Female–female aggression around mating: an extra cost of sociality in a multimale primate society, Behavioral Ecology 22: 1003.