|
- Females
|
Male offspring relationships Daphne Kerhoas, PhD student (in collaboration with Dr. Anja Widdig, MPI-EVA) |
||
|
It has been argued that female primates mate with multiple partners during their likely conception to confuse paternity minimizing the risk of infanticide of their newborn. Previous studies have demonstrated that male group members present at the time of an infants’ conception are less likely to attack an infant compared to males immigrating after the infants’ conception. As males always face a certain degree of paternity uncertainty even when they mate-guarded a given female for most of her cycle, it is still not clear whether or not male primates are able to recognize their own offspring and if so whether males provide paternal care. In Sulawesi macaques it has been observed that infants are very often injured and that injured offspring are frequently protected by certain males. The aim of our project is to study male-offspring interaction in Sulawesi macaques to understand whether males indeed provide care to their own offspring and what mechanism they use to identify these. |
|
||
