Time, gender, and seasonality in vervet activity: A chronobiological approach |
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Authors: | Maribel Baldellou Ana Adan |
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Institution: | (1) University of Natal, USA;(2) Present address: Guillermo-Tell 20, 08006 Barcelona, Spain;(3) Present address: Departamento de Psiquiatría y Psicobiología Clínica, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain |
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Abstract: | A chronobiological approach has been used to highlight the issue of how climatic factors and breeding seasonality may affect
male and female diurnal activity budget. We investigated gender differences for vervet monkeys in the diurnal distribution
of feeding, locomotion, inactivity, and social grooming within and between birth, pre-mating, and mating seasons. The main
climatic traits were that days were shorter, drier, and cooler in the mating season. Non-parametric statistics showed that
female activities changed with time of day to a greater extent than did male activities. When the constraints imposed by climatic
factors and mate competition increased, from the birth to the mating season, male maintenance activities were more independent
of the time of day whereas females continued to vary. Gender differences in timing were therefore greater in the mating season,
except for social grooming; males and females were more coordinated in diurnal timing of their grooming in the mating season.
It is argued that these changes may result in reduced levels of male-female contest competition, and may be related to higher
levels of male-female socialization in the mating season. Finally, it is inferred that an out-of-phase synchronization between
inactivity and feeding for males in the birth season, and for females in the mating season, may result from each sex investing
more time feeding at the expense of resting in those periods. |
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Keywords: | Diurnal rhythms Gender differences Breeding seasonality Seasonal differences Vervet monkeys |
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