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Copulation behavior within one-male groups of wild Rhinopithecus roxellana in the Qinling Mountains of China

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Abstract

This study was conducted using focal animal sampling on the west ridge group of the Sichuan snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana) located in the Zhouzhi National Nature Reserve on the north slope of the Qinling Mountains, from 8 July 2003 to 24 May 2004. The difference in the average frequency of copulations for each focal male for each month was significant (F = 3.068, P = 0.016, one-way ANOVA test) with the majority of copulations occurring between September and November. Duration of intromission ranged from 2 to 39 s, with a mean of 16.0 ± 0.4 s. Females initiated 627 courtship attempts (96.2%), while males only initiated 3.8%. Both adult females (72.8%) and sub-adult females (27.2%) were involved in sexual interference acts. Females who gave birth in 2004 performed more sexual interference acts than would be expected by chance in the reproductive period of 2003 (X 2 = 13.73 > X 2 0.005,2, df = 2, P < 0.005). Male response to female interference was equally divided into “solicitor mounting” and “interrupter mounting”. The resident males of one-male units were not observed to mount both the solicitor and the interrupter or mount neither following female solicitation interruptions. Three post-conception copulations were also observed in this study. These results suggest a skewed sexual competition, with multiple females competing for a single male, which was shown by courtship attempts and female interference.

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Acknowledgments

We express our sincere appreciation to Dr. Toshisada Nishida, Dr. Volker Sommer and three anonymous referees for their comments, and to Dr. Daniel White for English revision. We also thank Prof. Alan F. Dixon, Dr. Wada Kazuo and Miss Yisha Ha for their sincere help. The authors are very grateful to the director and staffs of Zhouzhi National Nature Reserve for their support. This study was funded by the grants of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (General Program, No. 30570312, No. 30370202; Key Program, No.30630016), Key Project of Ministry of Education (204186) and Cosmo Oil Eco Card Fund (2005–2009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Sciences, and Key Laboratory of Resource Biology and Biotechnology in Western China of Ministry of Education, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, China

    Baoguo Li & Dapeng Zhao

  2. Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, China

    Dapeng Zhao

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  1. Baoguo Li
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  2. Dapeng Zhao
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Correspondence to Baoguo Li.

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Li, B., Zhao, D. Copulation behavior within one-male groups of wild Rhinopithecus roxellana in the Qinling Mountains of China. Primates 48, 190–196 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-006-0029-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-006-0029-7

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