BEHAVIOR

We regularly collect individual (focal) and group behavioral data. In the field, we record, vocal, social, foraging, and activity data, following an elaborately developed ethogram and coding system. The goal of the behavioral data collection is to evaluate the relative importance of paternal care, food resource distribution, and male and female reproductive strategies in favoring the evolution and maintenance of monogamy in primates.

The observation of owl monkey behavior allows us to test different hypotheses that explain the evolution and maintenance of pair-living, sexual monogamy, and biparental care. For example, in the owl monkeys, we see intense male care of offspring. It has been suggested that in pair-living, sexually monogamous species, given the relatively high costs to a female of raising and caring for offspring, males may care directly for infants or provide some kind of indirect services to females. The male-care hypothesis predicts that males should provide infant care when paternity certainty is high; moreover, it is predicted that in the absence of male care the development and survival of infants may be affected.