Sexual selection in Japanese macaques II: female mate choice and male-male competition

Mating and reproductive outcomes are the product of the potentially conficting strategies of breeding males and females. In a captive group of Japanese macaques, Macaca fuscata fuscatabehavioural, endocrine and genetic data were combined to assess the independent effects of male-male competition and female mate choice on mating and reproductive success. Males were ranked by social dominance and by their attractivity to females. Computer simulation and logistic regression analyses showed that male attractivity had a stronger effect than male dominance on both mating and reproductive outcome. Although male dominance and attractivity both significantly predicted mating success during fertile periods, only male attractivity significantly predicted actual male reproductive success. These results provide evidence that female mate choice can be a stronger determinant of mating and reproductive outcome in this species when male and female strategies are in conflict. The lack of a consistent correlation between male dominance rank and reproductive success in this species may be accounted for in part by female mate choice of socially subordinate males. Sires who were observed to mate with the mother during her fertile period were more likely to be socially dominant than sires who were not observed to do so. This observation suggests the existence of alternative mating strategies by subordinate males, which may also contribute to the lack of a consistent correlation between male dominance rank and reproductive success in this species.1997The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour