Summary
Life histories of rhesus monkey mothers (Macaca mulatta) were classified in terms of (1) whether the mothers were top ranking or not, (2) gave birth to more daughters than sons or vice versa, and (3) gave birth at intervals of one year or of more than a year. Bearing daughters at intervals of more than a year was the most common history among top ranking mothers, while bearing sons annually was most common among other mothers. The consequences for the infants and mothers of such histories were examined and (1) infants were more likely to die as neonates if they had an older sister, especially if the sister had been born in the previous birth season; (2) dyads with daughters received more aggression from other adults in the daughter's first year, but not necessarily through the year following the birth of the next infant (3) when mothers of daughters gave birth of the next infant after at least one fallow year, their daughters directed considerable amounts of harassing aggression to their next-born sibling; and (4) mothers of sons but not of daughters delayed longer when they received more aggression from other adults.
We discuss the views that birth sex ratios may be affected by a mother's rank rather than how often she is involved in aggressive encounters with other adults; and that in top-ranking mothers, birth intervals may be controlled more by the infant's sex than aggression the family received. Fitting the data into a life history strategy model is done as a provisional and speculative exercise
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Altmann J (1974) Observational study of behaviour: Sampling methods. Behaviour 49:337–367
Altmann J (1980) Baboon mothers and infants. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Ma
Altmann J, Altmann SA, Hausfater G (1978) Primate infant's effects on future reproduction. Science 201:1028–1030
Anderson DM, Simpson MJA (1979) Breeding performance of a captive colony of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Lab Anim 13:275–281
Cluttor-Brock TH, Albon SD (1982) Parental investment in male and female offspring in mammals. In: King's College Sociobiology Group, Cambridge (eds) Current problemsin sociobiology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 223–247
Dunbar RIM (1980) Determinants and evolutionary consequences of dominance among female gelada baboons. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 7:253–265
Fisher RA (1930) The genetical theory of natural selection. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Hooley JM, Simpson MJA (1981) A comparison of primiparous and multiparous mother-infant dyads in Macaca mulatta. Primates 22:379–392
Hooley JM, Simpson MJA (1983) Influence of siblings on the infant's relationship with the mother and others. In: Hinde RA (ed) Primate social relationships: an integrated approach. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford pp 139–142
Meikle DB, Tilford BL, Vessey SH (1984) Dominance rank, secondary sex ratio, and reproduction of offspring in polygynous primates. Am Nat 124:173–188
Phillips LD (1973) Bayesian statistics for social scientists. Nelson, London
Ruppenthal GC, Arling GL, Harlow HF, Sackett GP, Suomi SJ (1976) A 10 year perspective of motherless-mother monkey behavior. J Abnorm Psychol 85:341–349
Siegel S (1956) Nonparametric statistics for the behavioural sciences. McGraw Hill, New York
Silk JB (1983) Local resource competition and faculative adjustment of sex ratios in relation to competitive abilities. Amer Nat 12:56–66
Silk JB, Clark-Wheatley CB, Rodman PS, Samuels A (1981a) Differential reproductive success and faculative adjustment of sex ratios among captive female bonnet macaques (Macaca radiata). Anim Behav 29:1106–1120
Silk JB, Samuels A, Rodman PS (1981b) The influence of kinship, rank and sex on affiliation and aggression between adult female and immature bonnet macaques (Macaca radiata). Behaviour 78:111–137
Simpson MJA (1979) Problems of recording behavioral data by keybord. In: Lamb ME, Suomi SJ, Stephenson GR (eds) Social interaction analysis: methodological issues. University of Wisconsin Press, Wisconsin, pp 137–156
Simpson MJA (1983) Effect of the sex of an infant on the mother-infant relationship and the mother's subsequent reproduction. In: Hinde RA (ed) Primate social relationships: an integrated approach. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, pp 53–57
Simpson MJA, Simpson AE (1977) One-zero and scan methods for sampling behaviour. Anim Behav 25:726–731
Simpson MJA, Simpson AE, Hooley J, Zunz M (1981) Infant related influences on birth intervals in rhesus monkeys. Nature 290:49–51
Simpson MJA, Simpson AE (1982) Birth sex ratios and social rank in rhesus monkey mothers. Nature 300:440–441
Trivers RL, Willard D (1973) Natural selection of parental ability to vary the sex ratio of offspring. Science 179:90–92
Van Wagenen G (1972) Vital statistics from a breeding colony: reproduction and pregnancy outcome in Macaca mulatta. J Med Primatol 1:3–28
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Simpson, A.E., Simpson, M.J.A. Short-term consequences of different breeding histories for captive rhesus macaque mothers and young. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 18, 83–89 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00299036
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00299036