Female dominance and feeding priority in a prosimian primate: experimental manipulation of feeding competition.

Female dominance and feeding priority are considered unique behavioral strategies in many Malagasy lemuriformes, particularly Lemur catta. Two hypotheses have been introduced to explain these behavior patterns: 1) females are agonistically dominant over males to mitigate female-male food competition so that females can compensate for high energy demands and inefficient reproductive physiology, and 2) males defer to females when feeding as a reproductive strategy. We tested these hypotheses by conducting controlled feeding experiments on free-ranging ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) on St.