Dissertation Research: The Assessment of Female Condition

关于雌性灵长类动物显著性特征的功能提出了一个新的假说。 传统的观点认为，在有性关系中出现的某些雌性特征，如性皮肤，是为了吸引多雄性物种中雄性的注意力或煽动雄性之间的竞争。 然而，这种观点并不能解释为什么这些物种中的雌性需要如此明显地宣传自己的生殖状态，或者为什么明显的特征会引发雄性之间更多的竞争。 与此相反，佩格尔认为，显眼的性男性，因为他们宣传女性的质量或条件. 这些信号是为了回应雄性的择偶和雌性之间吸引雄性的竞争而进化的（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雌性灵长类动物明显的性广告功能的最成熟的假说，但还没有对其预测进行过检验。 本论文将探讨在坦桑尼亚国家公园的贡贝野生橄榄狒狒中，雌性性特征的变化及其对雌性吸引雄性的影响。 迄今为止，还没有任何研究旨在验证这一假设，即男性的性兴趣受到野生女性这些特征中任何一个的变化的影响，尽管很明显，男性有选择性地交配。 这项研究将为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，这一主题显然对理解人类进化至关重要。 它还将导致培训社会行为领域的年轻专家。

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.