Doctoral Dissertation Research: Great Ape Adolescent Social Behavior

配偶的选择和随后的后代生产是进化过程的关键组成部分，但是动物采用什么行为来获得配偶呢？在本论文项目中，合作PI将调查年轻的雄性黑猩猩与雌性交配的攻击性和亲和性策略，以及这些策略在发育过程中如何变化。这项研究的结果将澄清我们对雄性黑猩猩胁迫行为发展的理解，并可能提供一个关于这种行为进化背景的视角。此外，这项研究将有助于通过在研究地点的教育推广工作，保护濒危黑猩猩和其他野生动物。雄性动物经常为配偶而竞争。当他们这样做时，相对较大，强壮，经验丰富，年老的雄性通常在竞争中受到青睐，因此产生后代。然而，之前在乌干达基巴莱国家公园的恩戈戈进行的研究表明，社会和身体都不成熟的年轻成年和青少年雄性黑猩猩会生育许多后代。青春期的雄性为青春期的雌性所生，而年轻的成年雄性则为成年雌性所生。在这个项目中，合作PI将收集大量青少年和年轻成年雄性黑猩猩在Ngogo的行为和形态数据，以调查年轻雄性黑猩猩与雌性交配的策略以及这些策略在发育过程中如何变化。具体来说，她将研究年轻的雄性黑猩猩是否使用攻击性来强迫雌性黑猩猩与他们交配，以及身体大小的性别差异是否影响他们这样做的能力。此外，她还将确定年轻男性是否通过在婴儿期和少年期与成年女性交往来改善他们的进化适应性，当时男性仍然依赖于他们的母亲，或者后来在青春期通过与青春期女性同龄人建立强大的社会联系来改善他们的进化适应性。

The selection of mates and subsequent production of offspring are key components of the evolutionary process, but what behaviors do animals employ to access mates? In this dissertation project, the co-PI will investigate the aggressive and affiliative strategies that young male chimpanzees use to mate with females and how these strategies change during development. Results of this research will clarify our understanding of the development of coercive behaviors in male chimpanzees and may provide a perspective on the evolutionary context of this behavior. In addition, this research will contribute to the conservation of endangered chimpanzees and other wildlife through educational outreach efforts at the research site. Male animals frequently compete for mates. As they do so, relatively large, strong, experienced, and old males are typically favored in competition and consequently sire offspring. Prior research conducted at Ngogo in the Kibale National Park, Uganda, however, indicates that young adult and adolescent male chimpanzees, who are socially and physically immature, father many offspring. Adolescent males father infants born to adolescent females, while young adult males sire the infants of adult females. In this project, the co-PI will collect behavioral and morphological data on an large cohort of adolescent and young adult male chimpanzees at Ngogo, to investigate the strategies young male chimpanzees employ to mate with females and how these strategies change during development. Specifically, she will examine whether young male chimpanzees use aggression to coerce females to mate with them and whether sex differences in body size affect their ability to do so. In addition, she will determine whether young males improve their evolutionary fitness by affiliating with adult females during infancy and juvenility when males are still dependent on their mothers or later during adolescence by forging strong social bonds with adolescent female peers.