Social Behavior and Parentage Assignment in Blue Monkeys

蓝猴在一年中的大部分时间里都和一只成年雄猴一起生活，尽管其他雄猴可能会在交配季节加入这一群体，甚至会“搬进来”几个月。通过测量肯尼亚热带雨林中两个蓝猴群体的亲子关系，该项目将评估长期居住的雄性和临时入侵者是否在群体中繁殖后代方面同样成功。因此，我们将测试一个假设，该假设是解释不同社会制度的理论的基础，即男性群居是为了最大限度地获得与女性的接触，从而增加他们的生殖成功。在繁殖季节，雄性和雌性的繁殖行为将由观察组进行详细监测。我们将把男性与男性的竞争模式(追逐和打架)和女性的配偶偏好与后代的亲子关系联系起来。然后，我们可以评估男性主导地位是否与生殖产出的增加相关，以及女性配偶偏好是否会影响父子关系。我们的结果不仅将提供关于一个拥有出人意料的动态社会制度的物种的信息，还将提供来自很少被研究的灵长类辐射的比较数据，这些数据可以用于测试和开发适用于其他灵长类和动物的理论。

Blue monkeys live in groups with a single adult male for most of the year, although other males may join the group during the mating season, even 'moving in' for several months. By measuring paternity in two blue monkey groups in a Kenyan rain forest, this project will assess whether long-term resident males and temporary intruders are equally successful at siring offspring in the group. We will thus test an assumption which underlies theories that explain different social systems, namely that males live in groups to maximize access to females and thus to increase their reproductive success. Reproductive behavior of males and females will be monitored in detail during the breeding season by teams of observers. We will relate patterns of male-male competition (chases and fights) and female mate preferences to offspring paternity. We can then assess whether male dominance correlates with increased reproductive output, and whether female mate preferences influence paternity. Our results will not only provide information on one species with an unexpectedly dynamic social system, but also comparative data from a little-studied primate radiation that can be used in testing and developing theories applicable to other primates and animals.