Sociality is a hallmark of the primate order, and understanding the selective advantage of group living has proved an enduring question. The researchers are studying six groups of wild blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitas stuhlmanni), differing five-fold in size, in the Kakamega, Kenya rain forest to understand the evolutionary basis of group living. This project focuses on how variation in group size influences biological fitness in of wild female and male blue monkeys. Group size is expected to reflect costs and benefits of group living to individual group members. Females compete aggressively with group-mates over access to food, and engineer group splits when groups become large. Such observations suggest costs to living in larger groups, while collective territorial and predator defense, mainly by females, also suggests benefits. The research team investigates how group size influences female fitness, measured directly in terms of inter-birth interval, infant survival, and age at first birth, and indirectly by aspects of feeding and social behavior. Males of this species try to monopolize groups of females, and should have more reproductive opportunities in larger groups. Models of male reproductive partitioning suggest additional important factors, however, like female reproductive synchrony, intruder pressure and a male's own reproductive history. This project clarifies which factors best explain the considerable variation in reproduction among males. The researchers monitor demographic changes, female social and sexual behavior, and collect fecal samples for genetic paternity assignment using microsatellite loci. The study population is one of very few in which long-term demographic data exist. This project directly measures reproductive outcomes as related to social and ecological drivers.
This project supports the dissertation research of a female graduate student, and research training of other undergraduate, M.A., and Ph.D. students. International collaboration with a new Kenyan university has led to building expertise in forest ecology related to the field site; the project personnel support a grass-roots community-based conservation organization, and advise the scientific team that is developing the participatory management plan for the Kakamega Forest.
