Dissertation Research: The Assessment of Female Condition

对雌性灵长类显著性征的作用提出了一个新的假说。然而，这种观点不能解释为什么这些物种中的雌性需要如此显眼地宣传自己的生殖状态，也不能解释为什么显著的特征会比其他情况下引发更多的雄性竞争。相比之下，佩格尔认为，显眼的男性性行为是因为他们宣扬女性的素质或状况。这些信号随着雄性配偶的选择和雌性之间为吸引雄性而进行的竞争而演变(这是通常被接受的镜像)。虽然雌性竞争假说是迄今为止关于显眼的性广告在雌性灵长类动物中的作用的最先进的假说，但它的预测还没有得到测试。本论文项目将研究坦桑尼亚贡贝国家公园野生橄榄狒狒雌性性征的变异及其对雌性对雄性吸引力的影响。到目前为止，还没有任何研究被设计来检验这一假设，即男性的性兴趣受到野生环境中任何一种女性特征的变异的影响，尽管很明显，男性有选择地交配。这项研究将向理解女性性信号和性吸引力的进化和社会意义迈出实质性的第一步，这显然是一个对理解人类进化至关重要的话题。它还将导致对社会行为领域的年轻专家进行培训。

A new hypothesis has been proposed for the function of conspicuous sexual traits in female primates. The conventional view has been that certain female traits that occur in sexual contexts, such as sexual skin swellings, are designed to attract the attention of or incite competition between males in multi-male species. However, this view does not explain why females in these species would need to advertise their reproductive state so conspicuously or why conspicuous traits would incite more competition among males than would otherwise occur. In contrast, Pagel argues that conspicuous sexual males because they advertise the female's quality or condition. The signals evolve in response to male mate choice and competition among females to attract males (the mirror image of what has been normally accepted). While the female competition hypothesis is the most developed hypothesis to date for the function of conspicuous sexual advertisement in female primates, no tests have been made of its predictions. This dissertation project will examine variation in female sexual traits and their influence on female attractiveness to males in wild olive baboons at Gombe national Park in Tanzania. No study to date has been designed to test the hypothesis that male sexual interest is influenced by variation in any of these female traits in the wild, although it has been apparent that males mate selectively. This study will make a substantial first step towards understanding the evolutionary and social significance of female sexual signals and sexual attractiveness, a topic clearly of vital importance for understanding human evolution. It will also result in the training of young experts in the area of social behavior.