Life-history and behavioral consequences of competition between solitary and pair-bonded primate conspecifics

建立、发展和维持社会关系的能力在包括人类在内的许多物种中都很重要。社会纽带对健康、死亡率和生殖都有积极影响。在这个项目中，研究人员将检查行为、人口统计和遗传因素，这些因素可能有助于个人建立成功的社会关系。研究人员将重点放在一个非人类灵长类动物的模型上，在这个模型中，父亲和母亲都要照顾他们的幼崽，研究人员将研究繁殖的结对成虫和孤独的非繁殖成虫之间的相互作用。这项研究将有助于更好地理解在结对生活的一夫一妻制群体中的社会关系，包括交配和育儿关系。该团队将培训9名本科生、2名博士生和1名博士后研究员，他们来自STEM领域代表性不足的群体。将加强与阿根廷研究人员的国际合作，研究人员将扩大努力，促进拉丁美洲生物人类学学科的发展。在国家层面，外展活动将包括与少数族裔高中生和本科生参与研究的项目(耶鲁皮博迪博物馆的STARS项目)合作，并根据他们的工作为动物行为和生物人类学课程经常涵盖的主题创建一系列公开演示。这项研究项目是在阿根廷猫头鹰猴子项目的范围内进行的，该项目是一个国际研究计划，旨在促进关于配对结合、一夫一妻制和父亲照顾的演变的知识和理论。在这项新的研究中，一个由研究人员、本科生、研究生和博士后组成的团队将从60组猫头鹰猴子的个体中收集人口统计学和基因数据。研究人员将研究已经离开出生群体但尚未配对结合的孤独个体，以及配对结合的成年个体。独居的个体需要进入一个群体进行繁殖，这会在独居和结对的成年个体之间产生激烈的竞争。作为该项目的一部分，收集的数据将被用来评估独居飞蚊和结对成虫之间的竞争如何影响婴儿的发育和存活、出生时的分散模式、结对纽带的形成和稳定以及交配模式。此外，由于这种灵长类物种在生理上表现出很小的雄性和雌性之间的差异，但两性之间的竞争非常激烈，这些数据将有助于理解性别特有的形态和行为的进化。因此，该项目将对生物人类学和进化生物学的一些核心概念做出理论和实证贡献。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The ability to establish, develop, and maintain social relationships is important in many species, including humans. There are positive effects of social bonds on health, mortality, and reproduction. In this project, the researchers will examine behavioral, demographic and genetic factors that may contribute to the ability of an individual to establish successful social relationships. Focusing on a non-human primate model in which both father and mother provide care to their young, the researchers will study interactions between reproducing pair-bonded adults and solitary non-reproducing ones. This research will contribute to a better understanding of social relationships, including mating and parenting relationships, in pair-living, monogamous groups. The team will train nine undergraduate students, two Ph.D. students and one postdoctoral researcher from groups underrepresented in STEM fields. International collaborations with researchers in Argentina will be strengthened, and the investigators will expand efforts to foster the development of the biological anthropology discipline in Latin America. At the national level, outreach activities will include working with programs involving underrepresented minority high-school and undergraduate students in research (STARS program at the Yale Peabody Museum) and creating a public series of presentations based on their work for topics regularly covered in animal behavior and biological anthropology courses. This research project occurs within the Owl Monkey Project of Argentina, an international research program to advance knowledge and theory about the evolution of pair-bonding, monogamy, and paternal care. In this new study, a team of researchers, undergraduate students, graduate students and postdocs will collect demographic and genetic data from individuals in 60 groups of owl monkeys. The investigators will study solitary individuals who have left their natal group but have not yet pair-bonded, as well as pair-bonded adults. The solitary individuals need to enter a group to reproduce, which generates intense competition between solitary and pair-bonded adults. Data collected as part of this project will be used to evaluate how competition between solitary floaters and pair-bonded adults influences infant development and survival, natal dispersal patterns, pair-bond formation and stability, and mating patterns. In addition, because this primate species shows very little physical difference between males and females, but intense competition in both sexes, these data will be valuable for understanding the evolution of sex-specific morphologies and behaviors. The project will therefore make theoretical and empirical contributions to a number of concepts that are central to biological anthropology and evolutionary biology.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.