Copulation behavior within one-male groups of wild Rhinopithecus roxellana in the Qinling Mountains of China |
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Authors: | Baoguo Li Dapeng Zhao |
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Affiliation: | (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;(2) Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, 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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Keywords: | Sichuan snub-nosed monkey Rhinopithecus roxellana Copulation behavior Courtship Female interference Post-conception copulation Skewed sexual competition |
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