Fernandez-Duque Eduardo, Juárez Cecilia Paola, Di Fiore Anthony
Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, 431 University Museum, 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Primates. 2008 Jan;49(1):81-4. doi: 10.1007/s10329-007-0056-z. Epub 2007 Sep 6.
Owl monkeys (Aotus azarai) are small, territorial, socially monogamous primates that show intense infant care by the adult male in the group. It has been hypothesized that male care may be adaptive because it increases offspring survival and/or reduces the metabolic costs to the female of raising the offspring. Alternatively, males may provide care even when they are not related to the infants to increase future reproductive opportunities. We describe changes in infant care patterns that took place after the eviction of the resident male by a solitary male in an owl monkey population in the Argentinean Chaco. The resident male and mother provided all infant care during the first month of life of the infant, until the male was evicted. During the three-day male replacement event, care of the infant was shared among the mother, a four-year-old sister, and a one-year-old brother. The new male began contributing to infant care soon after entering the group, carrying, and interacting socially with the infant in much the same way as any male regularly does. However, despite receiving biparental care from both the original and new resident males, the infant disappeared at the age of four months and was presumed dead. These are the first reports of care by sibling and by non-putative fathers in wild owl monkeys. Given the significant amount of time that new pairs of owl monkeys spend before reproducing, it is possible that male care in owl monkeys functions as mating effort as much as or more than parenting effort.
夜猴（阿扎拉夜猴）是小型、具有领地意识且实行社会一夫一妻制的灵长类动物，群体中的成年雄性会对幼崽给予悉心照料。有假说认为，雄性照料可能具有适应性，因为它能提高后代的存活率和/或降低雌性养育后代的代谢成本。另外，即使雄性与幼崽没有亲缘关系，它们也可能提供照料以增加未来的繁殖机会。我们描述了在阿根廷查科地区的一个夜猴种群中，一只独居雄性赶走常住雄性后，幼崽照料模式所发生的变化。常住雄性和母亲在幼崽出生后的第一个月里提供所有的幼崽照料，直到雄性被赶走。在为期三天的雄性更替事件中，母亲、一只四岁的姐姐和一只一岁的哥哥共同分担了对幼崽的照料。新雄性进入群体后不久就开始参与幼崽照料，像任何雄性通常那样抱着幼崽并与它进行社交互动。然而，尽管幼崽同时得到了原常住雄性和新常住雄性的双亲照料，但它在四个月大时消失了，据推测已经死亡。这些是关于野生夜猴中兄弟姐妹照料和非推定父亲照料的首次报道。鉴于新的夜猴配对在繁殖前会花费大量时间，夜猴中的雄性照料可能在很大程度上甚至更多地起到交配努力而非养育努力的作用。
