Craul Mathias, Zimmermann Elke, Radespiel Ute
Institute of Zoology, School of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Bünteweg 17, 30559 Hannover, Germany.
Primates. 2004 Oct;45(4):271-4. doi: 10.1007/s10329-004-0097-5. Epub 2004 Jul 7.
Female mate choice can be hypothesised in most nocturnal primates, since females show a higher investment in their offspring than males. The aim of this experimental study was to investigate if female grey mouse lemurs perform mate choice and whether age, relatedness (to the male), or male advertisement call activity systematically influence their decisions. A two-way mate choice design was developed in which females could choose between two males. Mate choice was deduced from the time spent in proximity to the males and from mating behaviour. During oestrus 12 of 17 females participated actively in the experiment and all of them showed either a significant spatial (n = 11) or behavioural (n = 1) preference for one male. In four cases copulations were observed. The influence of age on female mate choice was not statistically significant. In the cases with copulations, however, females mostly preferred the older male. This might indicate a preference for older age as an indicator of experience, fitness, and/or status. The influence of relatedness on female mate choice could not be definitely clarified. However, results imply a mechanism of kin recognition on the basis of familiarity. In the majority of choices, females preferred the male with higher trill call activity. Since trill call activity correlates with the relative dominance status of males, these results suggest an importance of the male dominance status for female mate choice in grey mouse lemurs. Altogether our findings indicate that females use a complex of different cues to choose their mates.
在大多数夜行性灵长类动物中,可以假设存在雌性配偶选择行为,因为雌性对其后代的投入比雄性更高。本实验研究的目的是调查雌性灰鼠狐猴是否会进行配偶选择,以及年龄、(与雄性的)亲缘关系或雄性广告叫声活动是否会系统地影响它们的决定。我们设计了一种双向配偶选择方案,让雌性在两只雄性之间进行选择。配偶选择是根据雌性与雄性接近的时间以及交配行为推断出来的。在发情期,17只雌性中有12只积极参与了实验,并且它们都对其中一只雄性表现出了显著的空间偏好(n = 11)或行为偏好(n = 1)。观察到了4次交配情况。年龄对雌性配偶选择的影响在统计学上并不显著。然而,在有交配行为的情况下,雌性大多更喜欢年龄较大的雄性。这可能表明雌性偏好年龄较大的雄性,将其作为经验、健康状况和/或地位的指标。亲缘关系对雌性配偶选择的影响尚无法明确阐明。然而,结果暗示了一种基于熟悉程度的亲缘识别机制。在大多数选择中,雌性更喜欢颤音叫声活动较高的雄性。由于颤音叫声活动与雄性的相对优势地位相关,这些结果表明雄性优势地位在灰鼠狐猴雌性配偶选择中具有重要性。总之,我们的研究结果表明,雌性会综合利用多种不同的线索来选择配偶。