High early lactational synchrony within baboon groups predicts increased female-female competition and infant mortality
Year: 2024
Type: preprint
Abstract: sp.) in Amboseli, Kenya, to examine the effects of 'early lactational synchrony' (the proportion of females in a group with an infant <90 days old) on female-female agonistic interactions and infant survival. Because early lactation is energetically demanding for mothers and high-risk for infants, we expected both female-female aggression and protection by males to intensify during this period. In support, when early lactational synchrony was high, rates of female-female agonism increased. High-ranking females increased their time associating with adult males, while the time that low-ranking females associated with adult males decreased. Furthermore, high early lactational synchrony strongly predicted infant mortality, even though periods of high synchrony tended to be brief in duration in this nonseasonally breeding population. This association may result from both aggression among adult females and infanticidal behavior by peripubertal females. These findings provide novel evidence that synchronous reproduction alters competitive regimes and compromises reproductive outcomes even in nonseasonal breeders.
Language: English
Topic: Primate Behavior and Ecology
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: National Institute on Aging
Awards: Developing insertable cardiac monitors to assess social and environmental effects on the autonomic stress response in a nonhuman primate model of aging, Demography of Sex Differences in Health and Survival, The biodemography of early adversity: social behavioral processes in a wild animal model., Gene regulation and social relationships across the life course in a nonhuman primate model, A life course perspective on gut microbiome aging and health in a non-human primate model
OpenAlex ID: W4402461007