Zhou Qi-Hai, Luo Bang, Huang Cheng-Ming
College of Life Science, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China.
Dongwuxue Yanjiu. 2013;34(E1):E9-12. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1141.2013.E01E09.
Infanticide by males is a common phenomenon in mammals, especially primates, as lactation lasts much longer than gestation in many species. Usually, infanticidal episodes occur soon after group takeovers, and are traditionally considered a male reproductive strategy (i.e., support the sexual selection hypothesis, Hrdy, 1974). To verify the validity of this conception, we observed one group of Francois' langurs in the Nonggang Nature Reserve, China, between August 2003 and July 2004. During the study period, a Francois' langur female with the youngest infant in the group was attacked three times by immigrating males, and later disappeared by the third day after the final attack. We suggest that these attacks on the female-infant dyad represent infanticide attempts by males, and may be the cause of the adult female and her infant's disappearance. Presumably, that female dispersed with her infant to avoid infanticide and was not killed. Though these observations do not completely verify the sexual selection hypothesis, they are not inconsistent with it.
雄性杀婴在哺乳动物中是一种常见现象，尤其是在灵长类动物中，因为在许多物种中哺乳期比妊娠期长得多。通常，杀婴事件在群体被接管后不久就会发生，传统上被认为是一种雄性生殖策略（即支持性选择假说，Hrdy，1974）。为了验证这一概念的有效性，我们于2003年8月至2004年7月在中国弄岗自然保护区观察了一群黑叶猴。在研究期间，群体中带着最小幼崽的一只黑叶猴雌性被迁入的雄性攻击了三次，最终攻击后的第三天，它和幼崽消失了。我们认为这些对雌性-幼崽组合的攻击代表了雄性的杀婴企图，可能是成年雌性及其幼崽消失的原因。据推测，该雌性带着幼崽分散以避免被杀害，而非被杀。尽管这些观察结果并未完全证实性选择假说，但也与之并不矛盾。
