Primatology Cheat Sheet by Anais_Pe

Mating efforts: All behaviours leading up to conception e.g. locating mates and compet­ition for access.
Parenting efforts: All activities related to offspring care post-conception.

Efforts spent in both of these aspects is dependent on trade-offs of limited resources: investing energy in parenting takes energy away from mating efforts.

In primates (human + nonhuman) must achieve a minimum nutrit­ional level to ovulate and conceive.

Female bonded v. nonfemale bonded groups based on relative strength of w/in v. b/w group contest compet­ition.
Female­-bonded matrilines cooper­ating on resource defences for benefits in contest with other female groups. Compet­ition w/in groups for highest quality resources maintains strong hierarchies.

Adapta­tions of model included additional category of monkeys with minimal w/in group compet­ition but that remain together because of a need for cooper­ation for defence of resources. So balance between cooper­ation and compet­ition (like van Schaik's socioe­col­ogical approach to group organi­sation, so with the weakness of the folivore paradox).

If fitness of a female is higher in a group than it would be indivi­dually, she is liekly to stay no matter how badly she is treated.

Quality of social bonds affect reprod success. Chacma baboons = higher offspring surviv­orship if females had stronger social relations. Social bonds also reduce stress

In cooper­atively breeding species, infants can be sired by one or more males. Normally only one female breeding in these groups. Helpers (including fathers) contribute to offspring care - e.g. marmosets and tamarins - which leads to higher fertility rates.

Sexually selected male reprod strat. High-r­anking males compete to monopolise access to females in multimale groups. Hrdy suggests that these circum­stances lead to evolution of infant­icide: a female giving birth to an infant must prioritise parenting efforts over mating efforts, so death of the infant makes female available for reprod­uction once again.

Hypothesis also suggests (as backed up by evidence) that infant­icide is associated with changes in male status, males kill infants whose death will hasten cycling in females again, males kill infants that are not their own and infant­icidal males achieve reprod­uctive benefits.

Behaviours aren't always selected for just because they benefit the group as a whole.

Example:
One monkey gives an alarm when spotting a predator to alert others, even though that monkey is now more at risk (group selection mechanism as suggested by Wynne-­Edw­ards). however, if all the monkeys emitted a call when spotting a predator, then they would all be more at risk than if they all stayed silent. All that matters is actually how the trait to call an alarm affects the caller. Calling reduces the risk of mortality overall in the group, but does not guarantee the survival of the caller over others so frequency of callers (and corres­ponding alleles) doesn't change.)

Examples that align with Hamilton's rule:
- Grooming - more common among kin than non-kin. Beneficial for partic­ipant for hygienic + affili­ative purposes. Examples of maternal grooming in rhesus macaques on island of Cayo Santiago, where females groomed close kins at higher rates than non-kin.
Research in France has shown that in mandrills infested with parasites, the monkeys stayed away from heavily infected indivs they were not closely related to but kept grooming close kin even if they were heavily infected.