Cooperation and Conflict among Male Spider Monkeys

这个项目建立在目前的男性社会关系模型，并有助于在非人类灵长类动物的多男性群体的男性债券相对较少的文献。 它提供了一个独特的机会，调查男性合作和竞争的影响因素，使用灵长类动物从人类黑猩猩谱系之外，并了解战争和联盟的出现群体间暴力的相关性。 此外，该项目扩大了研究人员在行为，生态和保护研究领域的方法培训来自美国，欧洲和多个灵长类动物栖息地国家的本科生，研究生和现场助理的长期记录。 该项目还促进了对亚马逊西部最大、受干扰最少的国家公园的保护教育（厄瓜多尔的亚苏尼国家公园和生物圈保护区），也是世界上最濒危的灵长类动物之一（哥伦比亚的棕色蜘蛛猴）。在过去的几年里，对野生蜘蛛猴--一种与人类和黑猩猩只有远亲关系的新大陆灵长类动物--的研究表明，它们在社会结构和行为的基本方面与这些分类群惊人地趋同。在这些分类群中，雄性通常一生都留在纳塔尔群体中，而雌性则在成年后离开群体，相关的雄性群体可能会发展出强大的、从属的社会联系。来自同一社会群体的雄性蜘蛛猴也会合作巡逻它们的领土边界，参与对邻近领土的深入入侵或突袭，并参与对敌对群体成员的联合攻击。黑猩猩、蜘蛛猴和人类所共有的这些行为模式在自然界中极为罕见。 这项研究综合考察了影响雄性蜘蛛猴之间社会互动的因素，重点关注这些关系的竞争和合作方面。这项研究将集中在两个热带森林中的两个蜘蛛猴社会群体，一个在哥伦比亚，另一个在厄瓜多尔，那里的野生蜘蛛猴已经被研究了好几年。习惯化群体的行为将被用来评估男性之间的合作和竞争模式，特别是在群体间的互动。 遗传数据将用于评估每组内男性的相关性，并确定这些组中出生婴儿的父系。

This project builds upon current models of male social relationships and contributes to a relatively scant literature on male bonding in multi-male groups of nonhuman primates. It provides a unique opportunity to investigate the factors influencing male cooperation and competition using a primate from outside the human-chimpanzee lineage and has relevance for understanding the emergence of warfare and coalitionary intergroup violence. Additionally, this project expands the researcher's long record of training undergraduates, post-graduate students, and field assistants from the US, Europe, and multiple primate habitat countries in field methods for behavior, ecology, and conservation research. The project also promotes conservation education about the largest and least disturbed national park in the western Amazon (the Yasuní National Park and Biosphere Reserve, in Ecuador) and of one of the world's most critically-endangered primate taxa (the brown spider monkey, in Colombia).In the past few years, studies of wild spider monkeys -- a New World primate only distantly related to humans and chimpanzee -- have revealed striking convergences with these taxa in fundamental aspects of social structure and behavior. In these taxa, males typically remain in their natal groups throughout their lives while females leave their groups upon reaching adulthood, and groups of related males may develop strong, affiliative social bonds with one another. Male spider monkeys from the same social group also cooperate to patrol their territorial boundaries, participate in deep incursions or raids into neighboring territories, and engage in coalitionary attacks against members of rival groups. These behavioral patterns, shared by chimpanzees and spider monkeys as well as humans, are extremely rare in nature. This study takes an integrated look at factors influencing social interactions among male spider monkeys, focusing on both competitive and cooperative aspects of these relationships. The study will focus on two social groups of spider monkeys in each of two tropical forests, one in Colombia and another in Ecuador, where wild spider monkeys have been studied for several years. Behavioral follows of habituated groups will be used to assess patterns of cooperation and competition among males, particularly in the context of intergroup interactions. Genetic data will be used to evaluate the relatedness of males within each group and to determine paternities of infants born in these groups.