Global Ecology and Conservation (Oct 2024)
Male consort behavior is driven by female mate choice and receptive synchrony in Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana)
Abstract
In group-living animals, males’ fighting abilities were usually mediated via dominance rank to sort males into a queue to access fertile females, especially in non-human primates. However, the correlation between male reproductive success and consortship, an alternative high-ranking male reproductive strategy, varies across species, obscuring the adaptive significance of male consort behavior. The priority of access (PoA) model is commonly used to predict male mating/reproductive success based on male dominance rank and female reproductive synchrony. In this study, we aimed to assess the applicability of the PoA model in predicting the distribution of male mating success and consortship, while also identifying the main factors influencing these outcomes in a group of free-ranging Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) at Huangshan, China. Our results showed that (1) the male mating was significantly skewed towards the highest-ranking males, deviating from the expectations set by the PoA model. This departure was attributed to both female mate choice and male consort behavior. Notably, the influence of male rank on mating success decreased as the number of receptive females increased. Additionally, female mate choice became less significant when consorted by males compared to situations when they were not consorted; (2) the observed consort behavior among males was lower than what the PoA model predicted for available receptive days, while high-ranking males exhibited a gradual increase in their consort behavior with the rising number of receptive females. Our results suggests that, in Tibetan macaques, male consort behavior imposed limitations on female mate choice, and mitigated the impact of male dominance rank on male mating success as the number of receptive females grew. We propose that male consort behavior could be driven by female counter-monopoly strategies, and the simultaneous occurrence of consort behavior and opportunistic mating may represent the most effective mating tactic in this promiscuous mating system.
