Description
In group-living animals, females are supposed to invest more effort in contests over food than males because of their higher energetic demand during reproduction. When females have a similar fighting capacity as males (i.e., monomorphism), this may result in females dominating males (cost-asymmetry hypothesis). Indeed, in most species of lemurs, a monomorphic primate, females dominate males,although in some species females and males are equally dominant (co-dominance). What causes the different degrees of female dominance over males among species is unclear. We here study in an agent-based model, LemurWorld the hypothesis that female dominance relates to the degree of competition for food which depends on its spatial distribution. In the model, agents group, forage and fight. Agents forage on leaves (distributed uniformly) and fruit (distributed from uniform to patchy). Agents become less hungry after eating and more hungry over time and after fighting. Hungrier individuals invest more effort in fights49which increases their probability of winning. We represent the energetic demand of females during reproduction by making females lose more energy per time step than males. We show that the degree of female dominance over males increases if the energetic demand of females is higher than that of males,even if it is only a little, and when the distribution of fruit is patchier. This is because individuals are closer together when food is patchy which increases competition, particularly among females. Moreover, we show that when fruit is distributed uniformly in the model, patterns of behaviour resemble egalitarian societies of lemur and when it is distributed patchily they resemble despotic species. Thus, the intensity of competition for food may underlie differences female dominance over males and dominance style in lemurs. We hope that this inspires future research in both lemurs and other monomorphic species| Period | 23-Jul-2022 |
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| Event title | European Conference on Behavioural Biology 2022: All of life is social! |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Groningen, NetherlandsShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |