Male and female breeding strategies in a cooperative primate
Open accessAbstract
Marmosets are cooperative breeders organized as extended family groups, but breeding is generally restricted to a single pair. Breeding competition is fierce in female marmosets; males, on the other hand, show low levels of intragroup aggression. We investigated male and female breeding strategies and the resulting reproductive output in 9 wild groups. Reproductive output, tenure of breeding animals, identification of the breeding system, breeding position replacements, migration and infanticide were recorded; also, we recorded grooming and aggression. Replacement of the breeding male or female was observed on nine occasions. On four occasions, the son of the breeding male inherited the breeding post, but we never observed inheritance of a breeding post by a daughter. Mostly, females attained a breeding post by immigrating to a group that had a breeding vacancy. Our results showed that Callithrix jacchus males and females use different strategies to attain a breeding position and maintain it for as long as possible. These strategies prolong the tenure of the breeding position, which is the best way to produce a large number of offspring. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Neotropical Behaviour.
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Male and female marmosets exhibit different breeding strategies.
“While marmosets are cooperative-breeders, male and female marmosets exhibit different breeding strategies (Yamamoto et al., 2014).”
From Inequity aversion strategies between marmosets are influenced by partner familiarity and sex but not by oxytocin (2016) · cites this paper as Yamamoto et al., 2014
Consequently, females rely on more competitive strategies while males rely on more cooperative strategies.
“Consequently, females rely on more competitive strategies while males rely on more cooperative strategies (Díaz-Muñoz et al., 2014; Yamamoto et al., 2014).”
From Inequity aversion strategies between marmosets are influenced by partner familiarity and sex but not by oxytocin (2016) · cites this paper as Yamamoto et al., 2014
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- Authors
- Yamamoto, M. E., Araujo, A., Arruda, M. D. F., Lima, A. K. M., Siqueira, J. D. O., & Hattori, W. T.
- Affiliations
- Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (BR)
- Venue
- Behavioural Processes
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-11
- Volume
- 109
- Pages
- 27-33
- ISSN
- 0376-6357 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2042740641
- Cited by
- 42
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 3
- FWCI
- 5.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- Locations
- Behavioural Processes (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Americanae (AECID Library) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte
- National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (#307418/2009-0, #305102/2009-5, #303466/2012-0, 480664/2011-7, #409511/2013-7)
- Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel
- Research Support Foundation of Rio Grande do Norte State (grant #010/2009)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior
- Keywords
- Callithrix jacchus, marmoset, cooperative breeding, breeding strategies, infanticide, immigration, reproductive output, sex differences, grooming, aggression, primate social organization
- MeSH terms
- Aggression, Animals, Callithrix, Cooperative Behavior, Female, Grooming, Male, Reproduction, Sexual Behavior, Animal, Animal Migration
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