Counter-Strategies against Infanticide by Males in Primates

灵长类雄性杀婴的对策

• 批准号: RGPIN-2017-03768
• 负责人: Sicotte, Pascale
• 金额: $ 1.75万
• 依托单位: University of Calgary
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=631972
• 关键词: Counter; Strategies; against; Infanticide; Males

Infanticide by males, where adult males target, attack and kill vulnerable infants, occurs in a wide range of mammals, and an important body of research investigates how these males gain from killing infants. Male infanticide is costly, however, for three other individuals - the mother, the infant and the father – and much less is known about how they cope with the risk of infanticide. I have previously investigated the tactics used by females to resist or cope with infanticide risk in a wild primate species (the black and white colobus). The impact of high infanticide risk on infants and fathers, and how they might develop tactics to resist infanticide, has received much less research attention. My objective is to continue to test hypotheses related to female counterstrategies infanticide by males, and to extend the investigation to include the testing of hypotheses related to the costs to, and counter-strategies employed by, infants and fathers, with the same population of wild colobus monkeys. This population has high population density and intense male mating competition, and infanticide by males occurs regularly. Individuals experience varying levels of infanticide risk depending on the group in which they live, since paternity probability for resident male(s) varies from uni-male, polygynous groups (high paternity probability), stable multi-male, polygynandrous groups (moderate level of paternity probability) to groups where a recent takeover occurred and where the new resident male(s) did not mate with the females around the time of conception (low paternity probability). These conditions (high population density, high male mating competition, varying infanticide risk depending on the social groups) create an ideal situation in which to collect the data necessary to test the research hypotheses. My students and I will conduct a number of studies to test the following hypotheses: Under high infanticide risk conditions, mothers will wean their infant abruptly, and will mate with several males to spread paternity probabilities; still under high infanticide risk conditions, infant development will be accelerated and this faster infant development will translate into earlier nutritional independence; and fathers’ tolerance of infants will be influenced by paternity and will co-vary with the level of infanticide risk. Considerable research has been conducted to understand the conditions under which male infanticide occurs, as well as to understand how infanticidal males might gain from the expression of this behaviour. This study contributes to our understanding of the other side of this evolutionary arms race, in assessing the strategies used by mothers, infants and fathers - for whom male infanticide is costly - to cope with the threat of male infanticide.

雄性杀婴行为，即成年雄性以脆弱的婴儿为目标，攻击并杀死婴儿，这种行为在多种哺乳动物中都有发生，一项重要的研究调查了这些雄性如何从杀死婴儿中获益。然而，对于另外三个人——母亲、婴儿和父亲——来说，杀男婴的代价高昂，而人们对他们如何应对杀婴风险知之甚少。我之前曾研究过野生灵长类动物（黑白疣猴）中雌性用来抵抗或应对杀婴风险的策略。高杀婴风险对婴儿和父亲的影响，以及他们如何制定抵制杀婴的策略，受到的研究关注要少得多。我的目标是继续检验与雄性杀婴的雌性反策略相关的假设，并将调查范围扩大到包括在同一种群的野生疣猴中检验与婴儿和父亲的成本以及所采用的反策略相关的假设。该种群人口密度高，雄性交配竞争激烈，雄性杀婴现象时有发生。个体经历不同程度的杀婴风险，取决于他们所居住的群体，因为居住男性的亲子概率各不相同，从单雄性、一夫多妻群体（高亲子概率）、稳定的多男性、一夫多妻群体（中等水平的亲子概率）到最近发生接管以及新居住男性在受孕时未与雌性交配的群体 （亲子关系概率低）。这些条件（人口密度高、雄性交配竞争激烈、杀婴风险因社会群体而异）创造了收集检验研究假设所需数据的理想环境。我和我的学生将进行大量研究来检验以下假设：在杀婴风险较高的情况下，母亲会突然给婴儿断奶，并与几只雄性交配以分散亲子关系的概率；在杀婴风险较高的情况下，婴儿发育将会加速，而这种更快的婴儿发育将转化为更早的营养独立；父亲对婴儿的容忍度会受到亲子关系的影响，并与杀婴风险水平共同变化。人们进行了大量的研究来了解杀婴行为发生的条件，以及了解杀婴男性如何从这种行为的表达中获益。这项研究有助于我们了解这场进化军备竞赛的另一面，评估母亲、婴儿和父亲（对他们来说杀男婴代价高昂）应对杀男婴威胁所使用的策略。