title: [Male-to-female agonistic support for copulation in Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) at Huangshan, China].
abstract: Biological market theory predicts that animals exchange the same commodities, or interchange different ones, to their mutual benefit. Using focal and behavioral sampling methods and continuous recording techniques, we studied Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) in two study groups (YA1 and YA2) at Huangshan, China to see whether adults interchanged male-to-female agonistic support for copulation. Overall, male-to-female agonistic support was significantly correlated with copulation behaviors when data from both study groups were combined. For YA1, copulations in post-agonistic support observation (PO) was greater, but not significantly so, than random observation (RO) in the breeding season, and copulation in PO was significantly greater than RO in the non-breeding season. For YA2 copulations in PO were significantly greater than RO in both breeding and non-breeding seasons. These results suggest that a male who extends post-agonistic support to a female is significantly more likely to copulate with her. Our study provides evidence for the existence of a biological market involving interchanged social behaviors. Our study also illuminates the reproductive strategies of male competition and female choice in this species.
authors.affiliation: School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, China. jhli@ahu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shuang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jin-Hua
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Dong-Po
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Bing-Hua
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002681:China; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D003307:Copulation; D005260:Female; D008251:Macaca / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male
keywords: Agonistic support; Biological market theory; Copulation; Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana)