Reproductive success of Bornean orangutan males: scattered in time but clustered in space.

Abstract: The social and mating systems of orangutans, one of our closest relatives, remain poorly understood. Orangutans ( spp) are highly sexually dimorphic and females are philopatric and maintain individual, but overlapping home ranges, whereas males disperse, are non-territorial and wide-ranging, and show bimaturism, with many years between reaching sexual maturity and attaining full secondary sexual characteristics (including cheek pads (flanges) and emitting long calls). We report on 21 assigned paternities, among 35 flanged and 15 unflanged, genotyped male Bornean orangutans (), studied from 2003 to 2018 in Tuanan (Central Kalimantan, Indonesia).

Shared community effects and the non-genetic maternal environment shape cortisol levels in wild chimpanzees.

Mechanisms of inheritance remain poorly defined for many fitness-mediating traits, especially in long-lived animals with protracted development. Using 6,123 urinary samples from 170 wild chimpanzees, we examined the contributions of genetics, non-genetic maternal effects, and shared community effects on variation in cortisol levels, an established predictor of survival in long-lived primates. Despite evidence for consistent individual variation in cortisol levels across years, between-group effects were more influential and made an overwhelming contribution to variation in this trait.

Patterns of urinary cortisol levels during ontogeny appear population specific rather than species specific in wild chimpanzees and bonobos.

Compared with most mammals, postnatal development in great apes is protracted, presenting both an extended period of phenotypic plasticity to environmental conditions and the potential for sustained mother-offspring and/or sibling conflict over resources. Comparisons of cortisol levels during ontogeny can reveal physiological plasticity to species or population specific socioecological factors and in turn how these factors might ameliorate or exaggerate mother-offspring and sibling conflict. Here, we examine developmental patterns of cortisol levels in two wild chimpanzee populations (Budongo and Taï), with two and three communities each, and one wild bonobo population (LuiKotale), with two communities.

Cultural transmission of tool use combined with habitat specializations leads to fine-scale genetic structure in bottlenose dolphins.

Socially learned behaviours leading to genetic population structure have rarely been described outside humans. Here, we provide evidence of fine-scale genetic structure that has probably arisen based on socially transmitted behaviours in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) in western Shark Bay, Western Australia.