Dissertation Research: Social Relationship in Free-Ranging Adult Red-fronted Brown Lemurs (Eulemur Fulvus Rufus)

灵长类灵长类表现出各种个体间的关系。一些狐猴物种生活在由多个雄性、多个雌性组成的大型群体中，一些研究人员提出，这些群体实际上是雄性和雌性对的集合。这项在马达加斯加安贾梅纳对野生红额棕色狐猴进行的实地研究将记录这种狐猴物种之间的空间接近、梳理互动、交配策略和攻击性互动。通过对研究期间出生的后代进行亲子排除测试和DNA测试，将加强对行为的现场观察。这个详细、长期的项目将验证这样一种观点，即大型多男性、多女性群体是由离散的男性和女性配对组成的。行为数据和亲子鉴定将允许测试这一假设，即在这个物种中，雄性和雌性配对可以保护婴儿免受杀戮。此外，为解释狒狒的雌雄关系而开发的假说将用这里收集的狐猴数据进行测试。这允许在其他灵长类物种社会关系的更广泛背景下考虑狐猴，从而通过更广泛的物种比较促进对狐猴行为的更好理解。这项研究还将测试这些假设在灵长类动物中的更广泛适用性。

Prosimian primates exhibit a variety of inter-individual relationships. Some lemur species live in large multi-male, multi-female groups, and a number of researchers have suggested that these groups are actually collections of male-female pairs. This field study of wild red-fronted brown lemurs at Anjamena, Madagascar will be conducted to record spatial proximity, grooming interactions, mating strategies, and aggressive interactions among this lemur species. Field observations on behavior will be augmented by paternity exclusion tests of offspring born during the study period with DNA testing. This detailed, long-term project will verify the suggestion that large multi-male, multi-female groups are composed of discrete male-female pairs. Behavioral data and paternity determinations will allow testing of the hypothesis that male-female pairing protects against infanticide in this species. Additionally, hypotheses developed to explain male-female relationships in baboons will be tested with the data collected here on lemurs. This permits consideration of lemurs in the broader context of social relationships across other primate species and thus facilitates a better understanding of lemur behavior through wider species comparisons. The study will also test the broader applicability of these hypotheses across the primate order.