Sinha, Anindya and Mukhopadhyay, Kakoli and Roy, Anirban Datta
(2003)
Eka adwitiya: Evolution of unimale social organisation in bonnet macaques.
In:
Proceedings of the Twenty-eighth Conference of the Ethological Society of India.
Department of Zoology, Sarah Tucker College and Tamil Nadu Forest Department, Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, Mundanthurai, pp. 110-115.
| Abstract: |
The bonnet macaque (Macaca radiata), a cercopithecine primate endemic to peninsular
India, usually occurs in large multimale multifemale groups, typical of most cercopithecine
species. This species lives in seasonal tropical deciduous forests and most females within a
troop come into estrus synchronously; this has possibly led to, typically, a relatively greater
proportion of males within groups and a promiscuous mating system. The northern
subspecies of the bonnet macaque (M. r. radiata), however, may be remarkable amongst
seasonally breeding macaques in having evolved, in recent years, a fairly high proportion of
small, but stable, unimale troops within one particular population; 52 % of the troops in the
Bandipur-Mudumalai wildlife sanctuaries of southern India are unimale. Demographic studies
across populations indicate that, compared to multimale troops, unimale groups are relatively
depleted in subadult and juvenile males, exhibit a unique female-biased birth sex ratio and
display extensive female dispersal, all of which may have evolved in response to
reproductive monopolisation by the solitary resident male. Several ecological factors,
including food provisioning, may have led to the evolution of this social organisation, unique
for a seasonally breeding cercopithecine primate. This extremely unusual phenomenon
demonstrates the behavioural plasticity of a primate species and the value of demographic
studies of multiple groups and populations. |
| Item Type: |
Book Chapter
|
| Subjects: |
School of Natural and Engineering Sciences > Animal Behaviour |
| Date Deposited: |
13 May 2006 |
| Last Modified: |
07 Jul 2007 15:44 |
| Official URL: |
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| Related URLs: |
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| Funders: |
UNSPECIFIED |
| Projects: |
UNSPECIFIED |
| DOI: |
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| URI: |
http://eprints.nias.res.in/id/eprint/60 |
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