Corley Margaret K, Xia Siyang, Fernandez-Duque Eduardo
Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
Am J Primatol. 2017 Nov;79(11). doi: 10.1002/ajp.22712. Epub 2017 Oct 16.
Agonistic behaviors are common in many group-living taxa and may serve a variety of functions, ranging from regulating conflicts over reproduction to defending food resources. However, high rates of agonism are not expected to occur among close relatives or individuals in established mating relationships, which are characteristics of monogamous groups. To contribute to our understanding of agonism within socially monogamous groups, we collected behavioral and demographic data from Azara's owl monkeys (Aotus azarae) in the Gran Chaco of Argentina over 14 years. We examined factors related to age, sex, kinship, and behavioral context to evaluate predictions of the hypotheses that agonism functions to regulate dispersal and that it mediates competition for food and/or mates. Intragroup agonism was relatively rare: the group rate was approximately one event every three and a half hours. Rates of agonism were generally similar for both sexes, but there were marked differences among age categories. Agonism performed by adults was more frequently directed at subadults than at younger offspring. In contrast, agonistic interactions involving infants were very rare. Among interactions between adults and subadults, adults were much more frequently the actors than the recipients, suggesting that agonism from adults may influence natal dispersal of subadults. Agonistic events were most frequent during foraging, but also occurred more frequently than expected during bouts of social behavior. Overall, our results suggest that agonism in owl monkeys serves as a mechanism for regulating dispersal, and also likely plays a role in mediating mating and feeding competition.
争斗行为在许多群居类群中很常见，可能具有多种功能，从调节繁殖冲突到捍卫食物资源。然而，在近亲或已建立配偶关系的个体之间，预计不会出现高频率的争斗行为，而这是一夫一妻制群体的特征。为了增进我们对社会一夫一妻制群体内争斗行为的理解，我们在14年的时间里收集了阿根廷大查科地区阿扎拉夜猴（Aotus azarae）的行为和人口统计学数据。我们研究了与年龄、性别、亲属关系和行为背景相关的因素，以评估关于争斗行为具有调节扩散功能以及它介导食物和/或配偶竞争这两个假设的预测。群体内的争斗行为相对较少：群体发生率约为每三个半小时发生一次。两性的争斗发生率总体相似，但不同年龄类别之间存在显著差异。成年个体表现出的争斗行为更多地针对亚成年个体，而非年幼的后代。相比之下，涉及婴儿的争斗互动非常罕见。在成年个体与亚成年个体的互动中，成年个体作为发起者的频率远高于作为接受者的频率，这表明成年个体的争斗行为可能会影响亚成年个体的出生扩散。争斗事件在觅食期间最为频繁，但在社交行为期间也比预期更频繁地发生。总体而言，我们的结果表明，夜猴的争斗行为是一种调节扩散的机制，并且也可能在介导交配和进食竞争中发挥作用。
