Alencar A I, Sousa M B C, Abbott D H, Yamamoto M E
Departamento de Fisiologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brasil.
Braz J Med Biol Res. 2006 May;39(5):647-58. doi: 10.1590/s0100-879x2006000500012. Epub 2006 Apr 20.
Dominance status among female marmosets is reflected in agonistic behavior and ovarian function. Socially dominant females receive submissive behavior from subordinates, while exhibiting normal ovulatory function. Subordinate females, however, receive agonistic behavior from dominants, while exhibiting reduced or absent ovulatory function. Such disparity in female fertility is not absolute, and groups with two breeding females have been described. The data reported here were obtained from 8 female-female pairs of captive female marmosets, each housed with a single unrelated male. Pairs were classified into two groups: "uncontested" dominance (UD) and "contested" dominance (CD), with 4 pairs each. Dominant females in UD pairs showed significantly higher frequencies (4.1) of agonism (piloerection, attack and chasing) than their subordinates (0.36), and agonistic behaviors were overall more frequently displayed by CD than by UD pairs. Subordinates in CD pairs exhibited more agonistic behavior (2.9) than subordinates in UD pairs (0.36), which displayed significantly more submissive (6.97) behaviors than their dominants (0.35). The data suggest that there is more than one kind of dominance relationship between female common marmosets. Assessment of progesterone levels showed that while subordinates in UD pairs appeared to be anovulatory, the degree of ovulatory disruption in subordinates of CD pairs was more varied and less complete. We suggest that such variation in female-female social dominance relationships and the associated variation in the degree and reliability of fertility suppression may explain variations of the reproductive condition of free-living groups of common marmosets.
雌性狨猴的优势地位体现在攻击行为和卵巢功能上。社会等级较高的雌性会从等级较低的雌性那里收到顺从行为，同时表现出正常的排卵功能。然而，等级较低的雌性会受到等级较高雌性的攻击行为，同时排卵功能减弱或缺失。雌性生育能力的这种差异并非绝对的，已有关于有两只繁殖雌性的群体的描述。这里报告的数据来自8对圈养雌性狨猴的雌性配对，每对与一只无关的雄性共同饲养。配对被分为两组：“无竞争”优势（UD）组和“有竞争”优势（CD）组，每组各4对。UD组中的优势雌性表现出的攻击行为（竖毛、攻击和追逐）频率（4.1）显著高于其从属雌性（0.36），并且CD组总体上比UD组更频繁地表现出攻击行为。CD组中的从属雌性比UD组中的从属雌性（0.36）表现出更多的攻击行为（2.9），UD组中的从属雌性表现出的顺从行为（6.97）比其优势雌性（0.35）显著更多。数据表明，普通雌性狨猴之间存在不止一种优势关系。孕酮水平评估显示，虽然UD组中的从属雌性似乎不排卵，但CD组中从属雌性的排卵干扰程度更多样化且不那么完全。我们认为，雌性之间社会优势关系的这种变化以及生育抑制程度和可靠性的相关变化，可能解释了普通狨猴自由生活群体繁殖状况的差异。
